Dumping woes: No sites in sight in Bangalore

Dumping woes: No sites in sight in Bangalore
Deccan Herald

Garbage, garbage everywhere, not a site to dump. This, in essence, sums up the situation Bangalore is faced with today, when it comes to effective solid waste disposal.

Garbage, garbage everywhere, not a site to dump. This, in essence, sums up the situation Bangalore is faced with today, when it comes to effective solid waste disposal.

With protests intensifying against dumping garbage on private lands and the State yet to inaugurate an official landfill for waste disposal, finding a temporary dumpyard has become a mammoth task, calling for stealth, continuous search, money and even fisticuffs for the contractors.

Drive along any of the road stretches towards the outskirts of Bangalore and you are sure to find more garbage than trees by the side. So much so that one wonders whether the contractors dump the garbage at the specified temporary sites or just unload them wherever they please.

Old Madras Road, Hoskote, Magadi Road, KR Puram, Hennur... the list is endless. And wherever you go you hear the same tale from the residents. “The contractors used to dump garbage here earlier. But we put up a fight and stopped it. How can we live with garbage around us?” was a common statement.

Says Kariappa, a resident of Gollarahatti near TG Halli, “Earlier, the Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BMP) lorries used to dump garbage here. But then we noticed that our cattle were dying after eating stuff like plastic from the dumps. People got cholera and other strange diseases. So we protested and got the dumping stopped,” he said.

At the abandoned quarry near Hennur Bande, a few people claimed that they had stopped BMP trucks from dumping municipal waste into the quarry. But when Deccan Herald visited the site, small-time trucks were seen dumping garbage, camouflaging it with construction debris.

Better manure

On the other hand, farmers too are not so keen to buy the ‘manure’ from the City as they found the local manure better. “I bought some garbage from Hoskote municipality since it was cleaner and could nourish my trees. I don’t buy waste from the City because it is smelly and looks unhealthy,” says Hanumanth Reddy of Doddahullur village, Hoskote taluk. The coconut trees in his field had plenty of garbage around each.

Consequently, the distances that the contractors have to cover to find dumpyards have lengthened like never before. If it was KR Puram, Magadi Road and nearby areas a few years ago; today, the location has shifted to unauthorised sites near Chintamani, Hoskote, Kolar Road, Malur Road and even further.

According to one of the contractors, 15 years ago, farmers used to buy city waste as manure. "Today, with increased use of plastic and other non-organic materials, there is no demand for this manure. Further, farmers don't even permit us to dump garbage on their lands. As such we have to travel around 40 km one way everyday in search of a site to dump. This distance too is increasing by the day," the contractor said.

Even if a site is found, it has not been easy for the drivers who have had to face the wrath of farmers and residents. More often than not, therefore, the dumping is done in the dark to avoid the confrontation with residents and farmers.

“What you see in my plantation is what I bought. But the garbage you see on the roadside near my field is what the lorries dumped overnight,” Mr Hanumanth Reddy claimed.

And why would anyone want to have municipal waste dumped in their neighbourhood, when it would mean inviting flies, mosquitoes, stench and even illness?

“We have been living here for a while and we see garbage dumped here everyday. When it rains, the smell is unbearable. Mosquitoes are aplenty here but we have no choice,” says Mary, who lives near the quarry at Hennur Bande.