Student vigil commemorates 20th anniversary of disaster

As the sun set over Dunn Meadow Monday, supporters of the Association for India's Development, stood at the corner of Seventh Street and Indiana Avenue, and quietly sang over the traffic, remembering the 20th anniversary of the Bhopal chemical disaster.\nIn early December 1984, 27 tons of lethal gases leaked from the Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. Though death tolls vary, 3,000 people were killed immediately following the accident, and as many as 20,000 people have died because of the chemicals contaminating the soil and water since that date.\nYogesh Simmhan, president of AID and graduate student, organized Monday evening's quiet rally after a Dec. 3 viewing of the documentary "Bhopal: The Search for Justice" about the 20th anniversary disaster.\n"It was so moving," he said. "We felt we had to do something; we were moved to something more."\n"The toxins have passed from generation to generation. Some children are born with cleft lips and webbed fingers," Simmhan said.\nEarly Monday evening, the group gathered in Dunn Meadow, holding signs asking the Dow Chemical Company, the company which bought Union Carbide, to clean up the site.\n"I came today because I'm Indian," said graduate student Tanvi Lal as she held a "Dow Clean Up Bhopal" sign, "It's so heart-wrenching."\nAs pedestrians wandered through Dunn Meadow, members and supporters of AID handed out information sheets and talked about the chemical spill. While many took the paper and continued walking, some stopped to listen.\nAfter listening to Simmhan speak, Kelly Wherley, facilities coordinator at the Mathers Museum, signed a petition to be sent to Dow's CEO.\n"I read about the 20th anniversary on some of the Weblogs I frequent," Wherley said. "I think corporate responsibility is a pressing issue. If we want to sustain the standard of living we have now they need to be held responsible."\nSimmhan said he wanted the protest to be a quiet but effective one.\n"We're trying to keep it quiet because it was a somber event," he said. "Also, we're just starting and we don't really have a mass of people to have a rally."\nHowever, he hopes one day he will. Simmahan said one of his main goals from the protest and candlelight vigil was to raise awareness on campus to become a more powerful protest force in the future.\n"People need to be aware of the fact that people are still suffering," said graduate student Rupali Patwardhan.\n-- Contact senior writer Kathleen Quilligan at kquillig@indiana.edu.