Karnataka: Garbage City

Garbage dumped on a road in Bangalore.-K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

Once famed for its gardens, Bangalore is now acquiring notoriety as a garbage city. Street corners, vacant sites, pavements, and sometimes even thoroughfares have become dumping grounds for rubbish. Sometimes the mounds even squeeze out traffic on narrow lanes. Clearing is done erratically. Market areas are specially affected as they generate huge quantities of waste.

Responding to a series of public interest litigation (PIL) petitions on the issue, a Division Bench of the Karnataka High Court comprising Chief Justice Vikramjit Sen and Justice B.V. Nagarathna threatened to supersede the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). When BBMP Commissioner Rajneesh Goel defended the Palikes work, the Division Bench came down heavily on it: You are giving us a glorious picture of what you are doing. But why is garbage still around?

Bangalore, the hub of the information technology industry, has had problems with garbage in the past too. The current problem began with the closing down of a major landfill on the citys outskirts in July. The facility, operated by Ramky Infrastructure Pvt. Ltd, was shut down as the waste was not being processed and it was affecting people living in the nearby villages. A.S. Sadashivaiah, Chairman, Karnataka State Pollution Control Board had invoked the Boards powers under the Environment Protection Act, 1986, to ensure the closure.

In fact, the affected village people had led protests against the unscientific dumping of garbage, and the closure was seen as a minor victory against the companies operating private landfills. Moreover, land prices around these landfills have fallen considerably. Reports in the local media suggest that the real estate as well as the waste contractors lobbies are influencing the BBMPs garbage disposal policies. The BBMP move to introduce waste segregation so that some portion of the garbage can be recycled has received a lukewarm response from citizens.

Bangalore generates an average of 5,000 tonnes of garbage every day and this is dumped in four landfills. People living in the vicinity of the other landfills have also started protesting. In fact, on a few occasions in September and October, the police had to escort trucks going to dump garbage at a landfill run by a company called Terra Firma.

Vikhar Ahmed Sayeed