Gurugram civic body starts clearing unauthorised waste dumps in Aravalli

The Haryana State Pollution Control Board and the forest department had issued notices to the MCG in July and August, respectively, instructing them to clean up the site and enforce the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) began cleaning up two unauthorised waste dumps in the Aravalli, located between Behrampur and Kadarpur villages on September 3.

A garbage collection point in Noida. (Burhaan Kinu/Pic for representational purposes only)

The Hindustan Times was the first to report the unauthorised dumping of waste in the Aravallis and the threat it posed to the ecology on July 30, 2018.

A spot visit by a Hindustan Times team on Wednesday confirmed that the dumps, which had grown to cover over an acre of land, had been cleaned. However, stray bits of mixed municipal waste were left in the area and covered with mud. A large pond, which lies upstream from a water body in Behrampur village, had also been contaminated with leachate from the unauthorised dump.

MCG senior sanitation inspector Bijender Sharma said, “Our junior engineers were instructed to pick up the waste and the clean up is almost complete.”

The Haryana State Pollution Control board and the forest department had issued notices to the MCG in July and August, respectively, instructing them to clean up the site and enforce the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. While the MCG did not act within the time limit specified by the HSPCB and forest department, environmentalists said it was a relief that some action had been taken.

“Waste dumping in the Aravalli is rampant and cleaning up this dump is a one-time solution. I have urged the MCG commissioner to either build a barricade or install a patrol team on that route to ensure that vehicles cannot enter and dump garbage in the region,” said environmentalist Vaishali Rana Chandra, who was notified of the dump by lawyer and activist Paramvir Narang.