Union Carbide India Limited (UCIL) was a chemical company founded in 1934. UCIL employed 9,000 people.[1][2] UCIL was 50.9% owned by Union Carbide and Carbon Corporation (UCC) located in the United States and 49.1% by Indian investors including the Government of India and government-controlled banks.[3]
| Founded | 1934 |
|---|---|
| Fate | Renamed Eveready Industries India in 1994 |
| Headquarters | |
| Products |
|
Number of employees | 9,000 (1994) |
UCIL produced batteries, carbon products, welding equipment, plastics, industrial chemicals, pesticides and marine products. In 1984, a gas leak occurred at a UCIL facility located in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, that was responsible for manufacturing various chemical products, primarily pesticides.[4] The incident killed thousands of people, and harmed hundreds of thousands more by causing chronic illnesses.[4] At the time of the disaster, UCIL was ranked twenty-first in size among companies operating in India. It had revenues of ₹2 billion (then equivalent to US$170 million).
The formation of the pesticides and herbicides that were produced by Union Carbide was from carbaryl which is used as a base chemical in order to react with methyl isocyanate and alpha naphthol.[4] In 1970, there was an issue with the methyl isocyanate unit being built (MIC) in Bhopal. The issue was due to the location of the unit which was nearby a railroad station and a heavily populated area.[4]
Bhopal disaster
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A gas leak happened between the nights of December 2 and 3, 1984 in Bhopal.[4] This gas leak killed thousands of people. Some survivors developed cancer and other health related impairments.[4]
A case was filed against the company which consisted of multiple players and negotiations. The Indian government also filed a lawsuit right after the parentis-partial act passed.[4] This act gave the victims of this tragedy representation. This led the mobilization of various victims which started the development of different activist organizations. Bhopal registered a claim of $10 billion, based on United States injustice claim standards. The Indian government claim of $3.3 billion was settled for $470 million.[4] In 1994, UCC sold its entire stake in UCIL to Mcleod Russel India Limited of Calcutta, which renamed the company Eveready Industries India Limited. The proceeds from the UCIL sale (US$90 million) were placed in a trust to fund a hospital in Bhopal to care for victims of the tragedy.
In February 1989, the Supreme Court of India directed UCC and UCIL to pay $470 million to settle all claims arising from the tragedy. The government, UCC and UCIL agreed with the ruling, and the two companies paid the settlement on 24 February.[5][6]
References
edit- ^ "History of UCIL". Retrieved 5 May 2008.
- ^ "Bhopal: The World's Worst Industrial Disaster, 30 Years Later". The Atlantic. 2 December 2014. Retrieved 6 January 2017.
- ^ S. Tamer Cavusgil; Gary Knight; John R. Riesenberger; Hussain G. Rammal; Elizabeth L. Rose (2014). International Business. Pearson Australia. p. 141. ISBN 978-1-4860-1138-4.
- ^ a b c d e f g h "Bhopal: Vulnerability, Routinization, and the Chronic Disaster", The Angry Earth, Routledge, pp. 271–291, 1 November 1999, doi:10.4324/9780203821190-24, ISBN 978-0-429-23648-8
- ^ "Union Carbide to Pay India Gas Victims $470 Million: Activists Denounce Settlement". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 16 January 2020.
- ^ Withnall, Adam (14 February 2019). "Bhopal gas leak: 30 years later and after nearly 600,000 were poisoned, victims still wait for justice". The Independent.
External links
edit- International Campaign For Justice For The Victims Of The Bhopal Disaster
- CSIR Report on Bhopal Disaster, December 1985. PDF