Mumbai may come to a standstill if dumping of waste is stopped at Kanjurmarg overnight: BMC
The Kanjurmarg land parcel has been in use for a Sanitary Landfill since 2016 and civic officials maintained that at present the plot houses 20 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste
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Kanjurmarg dumping ground (Archive)Days after the Bombay High Court declared a 120-hectare portion of the Kanjurmarg dumping ground as a ‘protected forest’ under the Forest Conservation Act and Forest Act, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation stated that they will be appealing to the Supreme Court challenging the high court decision. The civic authorities also maintained that for the time being, dumping of solid waste is ongoing at Kanjurmarg site where approximately 5,900 metric tonnes out of the 6,500 MT of solid waste which Mumbai generates every day is routed.
“We will be filing a special leave petition at the Supreme Court. The court can only give one of the two judgments–either ban the usage of the plot as dumping ground or allow us to continue using it,” a senior official privy to the development told The Indian Express on Monday.
“If the court orders us to vacate the land, then we will seek time for finding an alternative place where waste can be dumped and processed regularly. We will inform the SC that there is shortage of land in Mumbai and if dumping of waste in Kanjurmarg is stopped overnight without giving us an alternative, then Mumbai may come to a standstill as 90% of city’s waste go there for processing every day,” the official said.
The Kanjurmarg land parcel has been in use for a Sanitary Landfill since 2016 and civic officials maintained that at present the plot houses 20 lakh metric tonnes of solid waste. The BMC had also proposed setting up of a waste-to-energy plant on this plot. However, following the HC’s ruling last week, the tendering process for the WTE plant has been kept on hold.
In 2005, the SC approved the usage of this land for the purpose of a landfill. The land which is located in salt pans is a marshy area having a dense mangrove population. However, in 2008, a Union ministry’s notification stated that land parcels having a dense population of mangroves are to be notified as forest lands. However, later that year the state government passed a resolution de-notifying the Kanjurmarg land parcel as a forest land and allowed the civic authorities to use it as a dumpsite.
“The HC ruling stated that the process of de-notifying the land should have been done following the Union ministry’s rules which included calling of suggestions and objections and then changing the status. As a result, there are chances the SC may tell the state to initiate the process to de-notify the land once again by following all the rules that have been set up by the Union ministry,” the official said.
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