30 years after the Bhopal gas leak, children born with deformities are latest victims
Many women living near the Union Carbide plant have given birth to babies with deformities
When Champa Devi Shukla's granddaughter was born with facial deformities in the Indian city of Bhopal, she was not left short of advice.
"Many people said you should kill her. They said she is of no use, you should stuff tobacco in her mouth" to suffocate her, said Devi Shukla.
"But I thought, I'm not going to let her die. I've already lost three sons to this tragedy so I'm not going to lose someone else."
When a cloud of highly toxic methyl isocyanate gas blew across Bhopal on the night of December 2, 1984, about 3,500 people were killed in the immediate aftermath and up to 25,000 are estimated to have died in the long run. The tragedy did not end there for locals living around the Union Carbide chemical plant at the centre of the disaster, with many later giving birth to children with abnormalities.
While the exact numbers are impossible to pin down, the streets near the now abandoned factory are full of families whose children born post-1984 have either died prematurely or have major health problems.
But the government has not confirmed a link, which would have major implications in terms of compensation so far limited to people who were alive at the time of what is known as the world's deadliest industrial disaster.