Bhopal's garbage dump catches fire; 'smog' covers parts of city

BHOPAL: Smoke billowed from the burning garbage at the Bhanpur dumping grounds in the state capital, affecting colonies some three kilometre away, here on Tuesday. Fire in the garbage was reportedly doused a day earlier. Road and railway traffic was affected all through the morning.

Over 25 fire engines were rushed to the spot to contain the fire, according to

Bhopal Municipal Corporation

(

BMC

). The 40-year-old dump yard was declared closed last week, after a directive from the National Green Tribunal (NGT). It has been handed over to a private company to carry out scientific waste disposal.

BMC fire service in-charge Sajid Khan said, “The incident was reported at around 3am on Monday night. The exact cause cannot be ascertained. It took about 12 hours for the fire service to douse it.” Toxic plastic and oil residue that caught the fire led to a significant drop in air quality. Sources said that lack of security arrangement could have caused the fire. It was reportedly unmanned in the night when the fire reignited. It is unclear how exactly the fire started. “Small fires along the dump are normal. Smoke from the current incident was confused with winter smog by many residents. It was stench in that that differentiated,” said Manish Singh, a resident of JK road. “We witnessed the smoke along Raisen road. Some even feared the worst, that it could be an industrial fire. Some of the children who are asthmatic did not go to school in my colony,” said Anita Das, a resident of BHEL.

The wind direction mostly affected colonies towards the west. The 36-hectare landfill catered as waste dumping for the state capital for over four decades. Daily 850 tons of waste are collected in Bhopal. The total volume of the waste piled up in the four decade-old dumping yard is close to 5 million tons, with hills of trash as tall as a 5-floor building.