Kerala chokes Karnataka with toxic waste

Dumped by neighbour, brings a host of hazards, a menace for many

Karnataka, which is fighting a decade-long legal battle with Kerala over the ban on night traffic passing through the Bandipur Tiger Reserve, is also facing a year-old challenge.

God’s Own Country has been illegally dumping its hazardous biomedical waste and animal waste in Karnataka, jeopardising the lives of locals and polluting the environment in Kodagu, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts.

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In a recent incident, Nanjangud police nabbed two residents of Malappuram who were dumping biomedical waste on the outskirts of the temple town. This has set alarm bells ringing on what has been unleashed clandestinely for over a year.

This illegal dumping started on a small note a couple of years ago with vehicles from Kerala shrugging off a few sacks of toxic waste in the Gundlupet and Virajpet forest areas.

This has systematically grown to the extent of truckloads of waste being dumped in vacant lands of these border districts.

DH visited the border taluks of Gundlupet, Hanur, Nanjangud and interacted with MLAs, officers of Town Municipal Councils, Forest Department personnel and Pollution Control Board officials and general public to know that the activity has been thriving unabated for close to two years.

A senior officer of Nanjangud City Municipal Council said that they got a whiff of this illegal act during a public hearing for the expansion of Nanjangud industrial area.

Several industrialists and locals complained about the ‘over-night business’ of dumping biomedical waste.

“Trucks from across the border dump the waste in vacant lands of industrial area and disappear,” a health officer explained.

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B Harshavardhan, MLA from Nanjangud, told DH that the incident has taken a more organised shape in the last few months. “I realised the gravity of the situation when I personally visited the spots after residents complained. Until then, I had only known about this problem in Gundlupet. But it has now extended towards Mysuru via Nanjangud. I held a discussion with the Mysore Deputy Commissioner and ensured that checks are set up to track and identify suspicious vehicles carrying medical and animal waste into our territory.”

According to Harshavardhan, the miscreants have a modus operandi. “These vehicles come post-midnight and finish off the business by the wee hours (before 3.30 am). It’s difficult to track their activities then. Also, they choose their dumping places cautiously. Plus, they generally dump it on vacant government land or litigation land.”

Officials have discovered that these agents have their own men doing chores in Nanjangud or Gundlupet.

“Their job is to identify such lands and inform the agents. They get heavily paid. I have been working with the district administration to put an end to such illegal dumping as it might trigger an outbreak and pollute the environment,” Harshavardhan said.

Burning the waste

Suresh Kumar, a retired teacher and a resident of Nanjangud, says that the situation worsens when the waste is set ablaze during the wee hours by the miscreants in a move to hide their identity. “It leaves the city outskirts choked. Many of us go there for morning walks and on a smoky day, you just cannot stand the smell,” he said.

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Of late, people have also been noticing blood-stained cotton and bandage rolls littered in the localities close by. They suspect the carriers are air and stray dogs.

“This mindless dumping has added to the stray-dog menace. At times, the dogs bring with them biomedical waste, triggering panic among people here. The police must beef up patrolling here and any suspicious movement of a vehicle must be checked,” Rukmini, a resident of Basavanapura near Nanjangud town said.

A wildlife activist and volunteer working around Bandipur area said, “From the outset, these trucks look like any other vegetable or fruit truck with crates, and misguide those at the check posts. Sometimes, tippers come with the waste covered with sand. This is why we have been demanding a ban on the night traffic. Just because there is a ban, they sneak in by evening and wait till midnight to dump the waste. They leave the state in the morning. At times, they use vehicles with Karnataka registration to pass through the check posts.”

According to sources in Mysuru and Chamarajanagar district administration, the illegal medical and animal waste dumping by Kerala is not confined to Karnataka.

An environmental engineer in Chamarajanagar said, “Coimbatore and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu are equally affected by such unscientific dumping. While the waste sourced from south Kerala finds its way towards Tamil Nadu, those generated in Malabar region and north Kerala reaches Mysuru, Kodagu or Chamarajanagar.”