Sunil Verma
The gas disaster
The gas disaster
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Born in [Bhopal](/wiki/Bhopal "Bhopal") in 1972, the son of a carpenter, Verma lived in JP Nagar, near the plant run by [Union Carbide](/wiki/Union_Carbide "Union Carbide"), now a subsidiary of [Dow Chemicals](/wiki/Dow_Chemical "Dow Chemical"), when the gas leak occurred on 3 December 1984\. He and his family tried to escape, as the poisonous cloud of [methyl isocyanate](/wiki/Methyl_isocyanate "Methyl isocyanate") gas descended on the slum settlement in [Madhya Pradesh](/wiki/Madhya_Pradesh "Madhya Pradesh")'s state capital. The family members got separated, and Sunil Verma, with eyes burning and chest in pain, managed to board a bus that took him to [Hoshangabad](/wiki/Hoshangabad "Hoshangabad"), about 70km (44 miles) away. He lost consciousness and was taken to the district hospital. 

He returned to Bhopal a week later to find both his parents, three sisters and two brothers dead. His two younger siblings, a sister aged 10 and a brother of two\-and\-half, were the only other survivors. Relatives took the children to [Lucknow](/wiki/Lucknow "Lucknow"), but the children returned to Bhopal, surviving on the generosity of neighbours, both [Hindu](/wiki/Hindu "Hindu") and [Muslim](/wiki/Muslim "Muslim"). Sunil's sister and brother moved to the SOS village \- a shelter set up by a charity to house orphans of the gas tragedy \- while Sunil managed to study into his teenage years.


What were the immediate effects of the gas leak on people living nearby?