Bhopal survivors see tragedy live on in children

Hundreds of thousands of babies have been born in the years since a deadly gas billowed over Bhopal in 1984, but the survivors of that night say their children have been forever stunted by the tragedy.

Thousands died in the early hours of December 3, 1984, when the central Indian town's Union Carbide pesticide plant disgorged 40 tonnes of lethal methyl isocyanate gas in one of the world's worst environmental disasters.

Tens of thousands more survived but suffered severely disabling effects from the gas.

Activists say their own research shows the gas leak is claiming another generation of victims - and are calling for new medical studies to be carried out on reproductive defects related to the leak.

Children born to those exposed to the gas are smaller, thinner and have disproportionately shrunken torsos compared to those born to unexposed parents, they say.

"Research done in the past is insufficient and key aspects of the disaster and its aftermath have been ignored in research projects," Satinath Sarangi, who runs the Sambhavna Trust, an advocacy group and charity dedicated to the gas victims, told AFP.

Bhopal, Sunday, AFP