On December 3rd 1984 the Union Carbide plant in Bhopal India caught fire and exploded. The chemicals that were released into the atmosphere by the fire and the smoke caused horrific physical damage to all who were exposed to the fallout as well as the initial explosion. But what remains unknown to this day is the full extent of the long-term damage to the city's environment.
How much and what chemicals infected the water table? What were the long-term effects on male and female chromosomes from the inhalation of the clouds of poison gas that swept through the area along with the flames? Aside from physical damage, what long-term mental damage were survivors inflicted with?
There might not be so many questions about the long-term implications of the explosion if Union Carbide's head office in the United States would admit that their product had anything to do with people's problems in the post-explosion world. Instead, they have fled the country and tried their best to provide as little compensation as possible to the people of Bhopal. On one of the websites that posts information about the case they have a running ticker counting the hours since the disaster and how much money each person has received on average in compensation; the current count stand at six cents.
I suppose the officials at Union Carbide had hoped the problem would just go away if they hid out in the States and refused to show up in court or obey court orders in India. The fact that Ronald Reagan was President and not inclined to let foreigners push decent Americans around let them get away with this behaviour, as any decent government would have enforced at least the compensation orders.
Try to imagine for a moment what if must be like to be the people of Bhopal who have lived for twenty plus years watching family and friends die, descend into madness or give birth to stillborn babies. Animal's People, the latest offering from Indian author Indra Sinha available from Simon & Schuster Canada, does just that.
Through the twisted lens of the eyes of his lead character Animal we get to know some of the people of the small town of Kaufpur and learn about how the disaster affected each of them. There's also more than the disease eating away at the people; there's loss of faith in just about everything; and deep-seated despair caused by the certainty that nobody gives a damn about them.
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