After NGT rap, Kerala takes back dumped waste from Tamil Nadu

Chennai: After a rap from the National Green Tribunal (NGT), the Kerala government on Monday completed the process of transporting medical and plastic waste that were dumped in open lands in Tamil Nadu’s Tirunelveli district by medical institutions from that state. The waste was loaded into 23 trucks on Sunday and Monday to be properly disposed of in Kerala, even as the Tirunelveli District police arrested five people in this regard.

Sources in the district administration told DH that trucks hired by the Kerala government began loading the waste on Sunday evening and the last of the 23 vehicles left for the neighbouring state on Monday afternoon. The move comes days after the NGT directed Kerala to remove wastes of all nature within three days and submit a detailed Action Taken Report (ATR) before it.

“The vacant lands are now free of any waste and we are in the process of cleaning the entire premises. While 18 trucks with waste left for Kerala on Sunday, the remaining five left today,” a senior government official told DH.

He also said that five people, including drivers of the trucks that brought the waste from Kerala, have been arrested.

Medical and plastic waste from the Regional Cancer Centre (RCC), Thiruvananthapuram were brought to Kodaganallur and Palavoor villages in Tirunelveli district on December 15 and dumped on vacant land owned by private individuals.

The incident triggered a major row prompting the NGT to take suo motu cognizance of the issue, following which the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) also wrote to the Kerala anti-pollution watchdog to initiate necessary legal action against RCC for illegal transportation and dumping of the mixed solid waste/biomedical waste into Tamil Nadu.

The TNPCB also sought action against The Leela Kovalam for illegal transportation, and asked the Kerala government to monitor the border areas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu to prevent any future illegal transportation of waste.

Waste from Kerala being dumped in many villages across the state border in Tamil Nadu in districts like Theni, Kanyakumari, Tenkasi, and Tirunelveli has been a recurring affair, despite land owners filing police complaints and taking objection to such a move.

Locals said institutions from Kerala have started dumping heaps of waste, particularly biomedical waste without burning them in vacant lands. They suspect that lorries that come from Kerala to carry load from a near-by paper mill bring these waste and dump them in villages.