BHOPAL

city and capital of Madhya Pradesh state, central India. The city, lying along the slopes of a sandstone ridge, is a major rail junction and has an airport. Industries include cotton and flour milling, cloth weaving and painting, and the manufacture of transformers, switchgears, traction motors, and other heavy electrical equipment, as well as matches, sealing wax, and sporting goods. Just south lie two large lakes, around which are several palaces and a fort from about AD 1728. Bhop al has several mosques, including the 19th-century Taj-ul-Masjid, the largest mosque in India. Constituted a municipality in 1903, the city has several hospitals and a musical academy and is the seat of Bhopal University (founded 1970), which has several affiliated colleges in the city. In December 1984 Bhopal was the site of the worst industrial accident in history, when about 45 tons of the dangerous gas methyl isocyanate escaped from an insecticide plant in Bhopal that was owned by the Indian subsidiary of the U.S. firm Union Carbide Corp. The gas drifted over the densely populated neighbourhoods around the plant, killing many of their inhabitants immediately and creating a panic as tens of thousands of others attempted to flee the city. The final death toll was estimated at as high as 2,500 lives, and local medical facilities were overwhelmed by about 50,000 other people who were temporarily disabled by respiratory problems and eye irritation resulting from exposure to the toxic gas. Investigations later established that substandard operating and safety procedures at the understaffed plant had led to the catastrophe. The city is situated in an agricultural area in the fertile plain of the Malwa Plateau. The region was formerly a part of the Bhopal princely state. Bhopal princely state was founded in 1723 by Dost Mohammad Khan, an Afghan adventurer, and was the second largest Muslim principality of the British Empire. In its struggles with the Marathas, Bhopal was itself friendly to the British and concluded a treaty with them at the outbreak of the Pindari War in 1817. The Bhopal Agency, created in 1818, was a subdivision of the British Central India Agency and comprised the former princely states of Bhopal, Rajgarh, Narsinghgarh, and several others. The headquarters was at Sehore. At India's independence, Bhopal remained a separate province of India, to which it acceded in 1949. In 1952 the nawab's absolute rule was abolished, and a chief commissioner's state was established. In 1956 it merged with Madhya Pradesh, and Bhopal city replaced Nagpur as state capital. Pop. (1981) 671,018.