Covid-19 impact on environment: Delayed conservation efforts, waste management systems challenged

The outbreak of Covid-19 this year impacted the city’s immediate environment in more ways than one. While on the one hand, human-wildlife conflict drastically reduced,

The outbreak of Covid-19 this year impacted the city’s immediate environment in more ways than one. While on the one hand, human-wildlife conflict drastically reduced, conservation efforts to protect the region’s flora and fauna, on the other hand, was delayed on account of the Covid-19 lockdown. Meanwhile, the epidemic significantly exacerbated Gurugram’s waste woes, leading to not only an exponential surge in biomedical waste generation, but also in delaying the city’s proposed long-term solutions for waste management.

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Human-wildlife conflict reduces

Earlier this year, following reports of poaching during the lockdown from parts of Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka and even Nepal, the wildlife department went on high alert, particularly in areas like Gurugram, Faridabad and Panchkula — where the presence of wildlife is densest. While there were no instances of wildlife trafficking reported during the lockdown, department officials said that this past year has been a kinder one for wildlife populations in the region. With much of human activity being depressed between March and July, instances of human-wildlife conflict — which are common in summer months when animals stray into villages in search of water — drastically reduced. After recording at least four leopard deaths in 2019 (the highest in a single year), 2020 saw just one leopard casualty, when a nine-year-old male was mowed down on Pali Road in Faridabad. “That was in October, when traffic movement had greatly increased. Otherwise, there was very little to report in terms of casualties,” said Rajendra Dangi.

Conservation efforts hampered

The pandemic, however, has also delayed a long-pending wildlife census in Haryana, which is now expected to be taken up only after the current winter season. First proposed in March 2019, the census could not be immediately taken up due to scarcity of funds, as reported by Hindustan Times on February 22 this year. It was slated for the ongoing financial year. With the lockdown throwing various administrative bodies of out gear and making fieldwork much harder, the project faces further delay. Commenting on the matter, Haryana’s chief conservator of forests, ML Rajvanshi, said, “Availability of funds is no longer an issue. We have taken the matter forward with the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehradun. This census has been pending for a few years and we would like the survey to commence at the earliest.”

Biodiversity registers delayed

Covid-19 also threw a wrench in the implementation of the National Biodiversity Act in the state. Delayed on account of the Covid-19 pandemic, the finalisation of over 6,000 people’s biodiversity registers (PBRs) in Haryana is now expected to be completed by March next year. While initial drafts of at least 6,400 registers — at a panchayat, zila parishad and municipal corporation levels — have already been prepared, these lack quality and will need to be improved through more fieldwork, said current and former officials of the Haryana State Biodiversity Board.

The draft PBR mainly consisted of data from earlier wildlife and cattle censuses, and forest surveys. “But the main goal of the PBR is to work with locals and understand their relationship with their biodiversity. This requires a lot of fieldwork, which could not be carried out due to lockdown restrictions,” said a forest department official, preferring anonymity. Commenting on this, VS Tanwar, secretary, Haryana State Biodiversity Board, said, “Covid-19 made it hard for our technical teams to do their work on ground. So naturally, the biodiversity registers are also lacking in quality and rigour. The state biodiversity board has also undergone an administrative reshuffling in June, in light of Covid, and the work had to be halted.

Biomedical waste generation surges

As per the data with the district concessionaire for biomedical waste management, Gurugram is now producing between 600 to 800 kilograms per day of Covid-related biomedical waste each day — up from 400kgs per day in April, in the immediate aftermath of the lockdown — in addition to at least 3,800kgs of routine biomedical waste. Between April and June, the district reported a 585 percent increase in Covid-related biomedical waste generated, a quantity that has only continued to balloon with epidemiological peaks of increasing intensity. “From operating at 25 percent capacity before the lockdown, our facility in Sector 36 is now operating well above 60 percent capacity,” said a spokesperson for Biotic Waste, the concessionaire for biomedical waste management in Gurugram.

Challenges in waste management post-Covid

While there is presently no shortfall in the capacity for treatment and disposal of this waste, concerns of mismanagement abound, and handling this waste has proven to be a logistical challenge for stakeholders, as evinced by littered masks, face-shields and gloves, which are commonplace on city streets, particularly in the crowded localities or in the vicinities around healthcare centres. Conversely, mixed municipal waste has also been finding its way to the biomedical waste facility — from households under quarantine due to Covid — leading to operational difficulties. “The biomedical waste incinerator is not meant to burn organic matter. When segregation at source is not enforced, such waste goes into the incinerator and releases fumes which affect the efficiency of the technology, particularly our air pollution control devices. This pushes up the operational cost of treating biomedical waste since it requires increased maintenance,” said the spokesperson of Biotic Waste.

To deal with these challenges, the Municipal Corporation of Gurugram has proposed to set up a separate collection facility for all Covid-19 related waste being generated by households in the city, expected to be ready early next year. While Vinay Pratap Singh could not be contacted despite multiple attempts, an executive engineer in the MCG’s sanitation department, who is privy to the matter, said, “We are slowly moving toward a situation where we have more biomedical waste than treatment capacity. It is important to reduce the load on our concessionaire and set up our own capacity as well. A pilot project is being planned where the majority of household Covid waste will come under our purview.”

WTE plant delayed

Moreover, the city’s long-term solution for management of legacy waste — in the form of a waste to energy plant in Bandhwari village — has also been delayed on account of Covid-19. Despite being granted an environmental clearance from the environment ministry last November, the project could not see the light of the day in 2020, with the MCG’s redoubling its efforts to manage an increasing quantity of household waste. “It isn’t just a biomedical waste from households which has increased. Since so many people are staying at home, even the general quantity of waste from households has gone up by a large amount. This is why we have been carrying out a larger number of segregation drives this year. Our focus has been on streamlining collection, rather than end disposal,” said the sanitation inspector.

Officials, however, clarified that the project is likely to come to fruition in 2021. A spokesperson for Ecogreen Energy, MCG’s concessionaire, confirmed that leachate treatment and rehabilitation of legacy waste on site at the Bandhwari landfill is already underway. “In fact, we have been able to treat legacy waste equivalent to about seven metres of the landfill’s height,” the spokesperson said. The MCG has also directed the concessionaire to submit a reclamation plan for the site, in order to build the proposed waste to energy plant. An MCG official in the know of the matter, requesting anonymity, said, “We are aiming to have the legacy waste, about two lakh tonnes, reclaimed by the middle of next year, after which construction on the plant can commence. I cannot say immediately when the plant will be operational.”