The release lasts hours. The docket lasts decades.
English anniversary timelines often jump from 1984 to 1989 and omit the 1996 reduction that explains the 2010 sentence length.
Timeline
- UCIL plant at Bhopal
Union Carbide’s Indian subsidiary opens a pesticide works that later adds MIC production.
- MIC unit in service
Local storage of methyl isocyanate begins, tying the city’s risk to a single intermediate.
- Tank 610 release
MIC escapes over adjoining wards. Official immediate deaths are later put at 2,259.
- Anderson arrested, released
The UCC chief executive’s short detention and departure become a lasting extradition file.
- Claims Act
Parliament makes the Union of India the exclusive representative of gas-leak claimants.
- Environment (Protection) Act
Central environmental legislation is enacted in the disaster’s aftermath.
- $470 million settlement
The Supreme Court records UCC’s payment and, at first, also quashes criminal cases.
- Charges reduced to 304A
The Supreme Court holds that Indian accused may be tried for death by negligence, not culpable homicide.
- Dow acquires UCC
The successor company inherits the argument over whether any parent duty remains.
- Bhopal convictions
Seven UCIL officials and the Indian company receive two-year terms under IPC 304A and related sections.
After 2010 the criminal file against those Indian accused is a judgment. The site file is not.
Public-record encyclopedia. Not legal advice. Not a how-to. Graphic detail is withheld. Wars belong in a separate atlas.