Bhopal - 2. The Smell of Grass - a podcast by BBC Radio 4

The Bhopal gas tragedy was the worlds worst industrial accident. Tens of thousands of people died and many more suffered long term illnesses when lethal methyl isocyanate gas leaked from the Union Carbide plant in the city in central India on 2nd December 1984.

For the previous two years one man had been predicting that Bhopal was an accident waiting to happen. Forty years ago this month the Bhopali journalist Rajkumar Keswani wrote his first article warning of the dangers posed by safety lapses at the plant. During a dogged investigation pitting him against political power, corporate money and the indifference of the media and public opinion, he never gave up. This cinematic documentary series tells his story for the first time.

Episode 2. The Smell of Grass

Keswani digs deeper and discovers that a town planning order to relocate the chemical plant to an industrial zone, away from densely populated areas, was ignored. Union leaders smuggle him into the factory where he sees first hand the lack of safety controls and general disrepair. He learns more about the chemicals being manufactured as pesticides inside Union Carbide and understands the danger if they were to leak.

He sits down to write his first 'Rapat' newspaper article under the headline 'Save, Please Save this City', and waits for a response.

Narrator Narinder Samra
Written and researched by Anubha Yadav and Radhika Kapur
Music and Sound Design by Shreyan Chatterjee
Studio Mix by Donald McDonald
Producer Neil McCarthy

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