BHOPAL , India Union Carbide Corp. today closed the pesticide plant that became the site of history's worst industrial disaster, in which more than 2,000 people lost their lives, because the government refused to renew the plant's license to operate.

The people put out of work continued their occupation of the plant as a protest.

"We will dig a grave, at the Carbide gate, at the Carbide gate," shouted the former workers inside the plant compound.

More than 600 people lost their jobs as a result of the closing.

K.S. Kamdaar, vice president of Union Carbide India Ltd., said, "We asked the government to take over and continue functioning parts of the plant but they decided on closing it down. Public opinion is such that no activity should be permitted on this site."

Union Carbide has not operated the plant since methyl isocyanate seeped out last Dec. 3 .

In addition to the more than 2,000 killed, nearly 200,000 people were injured or claimed to suffer lasting side effects from the gas, which spread through nearby residential neighborhoods of poor people.