Bhopal: Raghu Rai

Photographer Raghu Rai was one of the first on the scene capturing the aftermath of the gas leak from Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, India, 1984.  The gas poisoned more than half a million people, killing up to 10,000 in the first three days. Thousands more have died a slow and painful death since.

Thirty years later, Amnesty International asked Raghu to go back and shoot the communities now living in the shadow of the disused plant, many of whom continue to be poisoned by abandoned Union Carbide chemicals still leaking into their groundwater today. Here he recounts his experiences in Bhopal then and now.