Third fire reported from Sohna waste dumping site on Aravalli land in two weeks

A municipal waste dumping site of the Sohna municipal council suffered its third fire incident in two weeks on Thursday

A municipal waste dumping site of the Sohna municipal council suffered its third fire incident in two weeks on Thursday. No one was injured in the incident but environment activists say that it hurt the Aravallis.

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Sohna Municipal Council executive officer Sandeep Malik said, “We are investigating the potential causes of fire at the dumping site that has increased now. Fires were reported from the dumping site in the third week of March too. We are checking if anyone is intentionally setting fire, and if so, then appropriate action will be taken against them.”

The council has appointed two full-time personnel to keep vigil at the dumping site.

Environmentalists alleged that this dumping site on Old Alwar Road was on Aravalli forest land.

Vaishali Rana, a city-based environmentalist, said, “The Aravalli forest land should be protected. Now, with these regular fires, not just the soil and underground water, but the air too is getting polluted. In March, the fire had raged for two days before the authorities took action and doused it.”

Divisional forest officer of Gurugram Ranbir Singh said, “I have recently taken charge of the area and will not be able to comment (on Aravallis) without checking the details.”

As per the sub-regional plan for Haryana sub-region of National Capital Region-2021, Sohna falls in category 3 for solid waste management. As per the plan, category 3 areas are estimated to generate solid waste in the range of 30 to 50 metric tonnes and it would be viable to adopt vermi-composting and other intermediate and low cost biotechnologies to effectively dispose waste in such areas.