The Bhopal disaster, also known as the Bhopal gas tragedy, occurred on the night of December 2–3, 1984, at the Union Carbide India Limited pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, India. In what is considered the world’s worst industrial disaster, 40 tons of the highly toxic gas methyl isocyanate leaked, exposing over 500,000 people. The tragedy killed 3,800 people immediately, up to 10,000 within days, and caused long-term morbidity and premature deaths for thousands more over subsequent decades. In 1982 tube wells in the vicinity of the UCIL factory had to be abandoned and tests in 1989 performed by UCC’s laboratory revealed that soil and water samples collected near the factory and inside the plant were toxic to fish. Several other studies had also shown polluted soil and groundwater in the area.