The disaster did not come as a bolt from the blue. Between 1982 and 1984 a local journalist from Bhopal, Rajkumar Keswani, published several stories on safety lapses at the Union Carbide plant. On 26 September 1984, one of Keswani’s articles presciently warned ‘Bhopal [is] sitting on the brink of a volcano’.

Just after midnight as poisonous plumes of smoke wafted through the Indian city of Bhopal four decades ago, Gas Devi was born, gasping for every breath.

Four decades after the Bhopal Gas Tragedy, victims still await justice as the case languishes in a prolonged legal battle with 28 judges and inadequate sentences.

On the 40th anniversary of the Bhopal gas tragedy, members of the Sambhavna Trust Clinic, providing free medical care to survivors, on Monday night paid homage to victims by holding a candlelight vigil near the now defunct Union Carbide factory in the city.

What is a dark night? For the people of Bhopal, it was a moment when life itself turned into a nightmare. On the night of December 2-3, 1984, death swept through the city like a silent storm, leaving behind screams and pain.