Why my family are fighting for justice - 20 years on (Bhopal)

Twenty years ago my grandparents, Trilok Nath and Kamla Bahel, boarded a night train from the Indian city of Hyderabad to their home in Bhopal. They were lucky. It was delayed. Had the train left on time they would almost certainly have died.

Just after midnight, on 3 December 1984, the world's worst industrial tragedy hit their home city while they were stuck in their carriage. A cloud of gas surged across the area after a series of safety failures at the local pesticide plant allowed a tank containing methyl isocyanate to spill its deadly contents.

By the most conservative estimates, 3,000 people died that night. Many dropped dead as they fled. Unofficial figures put the death toll at 8,000. Entire families were killed, many people disappeared without record.

Worse, the deaths continued. Some believe numbers of Bhopal's victims now exceed 20,000, while tens of thousands continue to suffer from chronic illnesses. The city's miscarriage rate is seven times the national Indian average, and rates of skin, lung and gastro-intestinal cancers have soared. Every day 4,000 people queue at the city's gas relief hospitals with ailments ranging from damaged lungs and severe heart problems to wrecked immune systems and diseases such as tuberculosis.

Guardian UK