Villagers oppose fresh waste dumping at new site in Bandhwari

Officials said this is not the first time locals have opposed their plan — at least seven times, they had faced similar resistance in Basai, Daulatabad, Kadarpur, Ullawas, Hayatpur and Pali in Faridabad

Residents of villages near Bandhwari have opposed the dumping and processing of fresh waste at the new two-acre constructed site of the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) near the old landfill. The civic body had started dumping solid waste at the new site last week but had to stop it after villagers threatened MCG officials.

Over 40 foot high, the Bandhwari dump is one of the largest landfills in north India and it towers above the mesquite forests and surrounding Aravalli hills. (Parveen Kumar/ HT)

A group of villagers protested at the site on Sunday and said they will not let MCG use the new site for dumping garbage. In view of the resistance, the MCG has resumed dumping at the old landfill itself, municipal officials said.

MCG officials said they constructed a concrete base on a two-acre plot near the Bandhwari landfill to process daily solid waste from Gurugram so that the old landfill could be remediated but the work was stopped by locals, leading to delays in meeting the September 30 deadline for clearing the landfill.

Officials said this is not the first time locals have opposed their plan -- at least seven times, they had faced similar resistance in Basai, Daulatabad, Kadarpur, Ullawas, Hayatpur and Pali in Faridabad.

The decision to construct the concrete site near the landfill itself was taken after MCG could not find a suitable spot in any other location.

MCG joint commissioner Naresh Kumar said their prime focus is to complete the task of processing waste from the landfill before September. “These issues delay the project and it becomes difficult to manage work and adhere to deadlines. We have tried to set up processing units at many locations but each time there was resistance from locals leading to further delays. Currently, we are dumping waste at the landfill until the protests die,” he said.

Sanjay Harsana, a resident of Bandhwari, said they will continue to protest if the MCG again tries to dump fresh waste at the new site. “Instead of looking for a new site, they are again using the same area to dump waste. We are already suffering [due to pollution from the Bandhwari landfill] and the landfill has triggered a health crisis in the surrounding villages. Toxic leachate from the landfill has seeped into the water supply and is consumed by villagers nearby, which is causing them health issues,” he said.

Over 40 foot high, the Bandhwari dump is one of the largest landfills in north India and towers above the mesquite forests and surrounding Aravalli hills. It is impossible to miss this man-made mountain of garbage, or the foul stench which emanates from it, as one crosses the district border into Faridabad.

Gurugram-based environmentalist Vaishali Rana, said the MCG has not been able to provide the demarcation report showing the two acres are truly theirs, and on top of that, they have cut more than 100 trees illegally to construct the concrete base there .

“MCG is encroaching on the revenue raasta (road) completely and also on the green belt that has a three tier plantation, which the civic body was supposed to maintain as per their environmental clearance condition. So MCG, in all probability, is already using more than the 32 acres sanctioned to it in the Aravallis,” she said.

Roma J Vinayak, a city based environmentalist, said there are multiple issues with the new site as the three acres behind the landfill is Aravalli plantation, and is protected by a Supreme Court order of 1992. “Without permission from the central government, MCG cannot divert that land for non-forest activity. There is also no demarcation report for the two acres that MCG is claiming as its own,” she said.

Vinayak said that MCG has already encroached on the green belt that needs to be on all four sides of the landfill . “The waste has already reached the road and the civic body is already using more than assigned 32 acres. The revenue raasta ( approximately 400 metres long and 10 metres wide ) comes under the forest department and the department has penalised MCG  ₹50 lakh for encroaching on it,” she said.