The first sight of the flare stacks of the Union Carbide factory, from the terrace of the new Sambhavna clinic, sent chills down my spine. Only a kilometer away, this clinic stands for everything Union Carbide had betrayed - trust, compassion, responsibility, honesty and respect for the earth.     

     Sambhavna trust, formed in 1995, provides free treatment to the survivors of the gas leak through a combination of ayurveda, yoga and modern medicine. The new building incorporates passive cooling, rainwater harvesting and recycling techniques to shrink its ecological footprint.

    Talking to the people at a local tea stall gave me a glimpse of not only their pain and frustration but also their resilience. Their accounts made the fateful night of Dec 3rd come alive like never before.

    The full view of tank #610 in the fading sun, which held the 40 tons of methyl isocyanate that lead to the disaster, petrified me in silence. Neither the spatial distance of 100 meters from the tank nor the temporal distance of 20 years provided any solace to my angered and sorrowful self.

    Toxins from the factory have seeped into the water table poisoning it irreversibly. A study released in Jan 2002, has documented the presence of heavy metals, pesticides and organo-chemicals in the soil, water and breast milk samples collected from communities around the factory. The completely barren solar evaporation pond remains a mute witness to the contamination.

    Sambhavna also campaigns for the survivors. Rachna Dhingra, an AID Jeevansaathi working with Sambhavna, has organized the women from the contaminated areas to articulate their miseries, and has been instrumental in the partial implementation of the Supreme Court's order to deliver clean water. 

    Despite the lack of governmental assistance, Sambhavana carries on scientific research. Through verbal autopsies, it has been able to provide evidence correlating gas exposure in 1984 with ongoing deaths.

    Union Carbide is not the only name associated with Bhopal any more - Sambhavna has been added to the list.               

   - Somnath Mukherji, Boston