A significant population of Bangalore today follows western lifestyle and consumption patterns. Neighbourhoods and industrial areas with plush lawns, ornamental gardens and parks, glitzy tall buildings and hi-tech apartment complexes are dime a dozen. Amidst this is a small village in north Bangalore that is gasping for breath as the Greater Bangalore City Corporation or the Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) has been dumping around 200 truckloads of waste every day from May 2003. The land for this dumpyard has been taken on a lease from a farmer in the village of Mavallipura, paid handsomely for providing his land for this.
While no villager was consulted, they soon realised not only was the dump bringing diseases, but the unsegregated waste as it decomposed released toxic sludge and slurry into water bodies that were used for drinking and agriculture.
Villagers began to suffer a variety of health problems such as allergic rhinitis, allergic dermatitis, repeated intestinal infections, diarrhoea, sleeplessness, cough and upper respiratory tract infections. The affected communities are clear the cause for these ailments is the dumping and burning of solid waste at this dump.also A water analysis has confirmed that the leachates and runoff have severely contaminated ground and surface water aquifers. A very high count of coliform bacteria was found in the sample 200m from the dumping site. The samples showed more than the permissible levels of other parameters, including heavy metals in some of the samples, according to the NGO Environment Support Group (ESG).
Akshay Kumar, a 15-year-old boy, died of dengue Mavallipura. Akshay’s untimely death is the tragic outcome of dumping of hundreds of tonnes of garbage daily by the BBMP at Mavallipura, making it a fertile habitat for mosquitoes and resulting in widespread affliction of local communities with deadly dengue and chikungunya, ESG added at a press conference in Bangalore on Wednesday.
This was the second death in a week in this village of 2,000. Rajanna (about 60 year) passed away due to cancer only six days ago. Rajanna’s death is said to have been highly indicative of the adverse impact of toxic discharge from landfills. Many more are suffering from cancer, kidney failure, low immunity levels in surrounding villages, and the rates of such diseases are way over the national average, said ESG.
The landfills are only 5 km from Yelahanka Air Force base and attract kites and crows, and vultures too — a serious threat to flight safety of defence aircraft. “This landfill is proving to be a major handicap to free movement of IAF planes and consequently compromising our air borne security systems,” said Leo Saldanha, co-ordinator, ESG.
ESG says, it has surveyed the damage to the local environment and human health due to the illegal landfills and a comprehensive report of the adverse impacts will soon be released.
