Warren Anderson, Keshub Mahindra, Rajiv Gandhi, the 2010 court, Satinath Sarangi and claimant groups.
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Methyl isocyanate from a storage tank at the UCIL pesticide plant on the night of 2–3 December 1984. The page does not discuss how to handle or release the chemical. The public fact is an uncontrolled urban exposure.
The official immediate death toll often cited is 2,259. Indian government statements later used about 3,500 deaths in the first days and more than 15,000 gas-related deaths over the following years. Campaign estimates run higher. All of these are dated published figures, not a single census.
UCC paid US$470 million to the Union of India under Supreme Court orders of 14–15 February 1989 to resolve civil claims. Criminal proceedings were first quashed and later revived. Distribution of the money to claimants took years and remains criticised.
On 7 June 2010 a Bhopal court convicted seven former UCIL officials, including chairman Keshub Mahindra, and the Indian company of causing death by negligence (IPC 304A) and related counts. Sentences were two years and fines. An eighth accused had died. Warren Anderson was not in the dock.
Civil claims were settled; criminal law produced only negligence convictions of Indian employees; the American parent executive was never tried in India; the factory site’s contamination file is not closed. Those outcomes do not add to a single word like convicted or closed.
The 1985 claims-processing Act, the Environment (Protection) Act 1986 and the Public Liability Insurance Act 1991. Together they centralised claimant representation, environmental rule-making and no-fault industrial insurance.
The American executive became the English-language face. The convicted men were Indian employees a generation later.
Medical and campaign names hold the chronic file that neither settlement nor two-year sentences closed.
Chairman, Union Carbide Corporation
Arrested in India in December 1984, released on bond, returned to the United States and died in 2014 without standing Indian trial. Extradition failed. English memory treats him as the absent parent-company defendant.
Chairman, UCIL
The most prominent of the Indian accused convicted on 7 June 2010 of causing death by negligence. The two-year term, after the 1996 charge reduction, was widely called incommensurate with the scale.
Prime Minister of India
His government framed the 1985 claims Act and the first international litigation strategy. The Union’s role as sole claimant still structures who can settle.
Trial court in the criminal case
After more than two decades and a reduced charge, the 2010 court entered the first convictions of UCIL officials. Appeals and criticism followed at once.
Sambhavna Trust clinic
A long-running independent medical and documentation effort in Bhopal that English researchers use when official registries stop. Represents the chronic, not the night, file.
Survivors’ and campaign groups
From early relief committees to the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, these groups kept the site, the 2010 sentences and Dow’s successor status in public English and Hindi argument.
Named power left. Named employees were convicted late and lightly. Named clinics stayed.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.