How Adampur fires sparked waste mngmt push in India

Bhopal: When Bhopal Municipal Corporation (BMC) knocked on the doors of the Supreme Court, asking for relief from paying a staggering Rs 1.80 crore penalty slapped on it by central bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) for flouting solid waste management rules at its Adampur waste dumping site three years ago, it led to a landmark judgment by the apex court recently, fixing strict accountability for not adhering to waste management rules.TOI recently reported how SC added teeth to the Solid Waste Management Rules-2026, which come into force from Apr 1, by ordering prosecution of every person, official and authority found contributing, abetting or neglecting in their statutory duties to be liable to be fined.
The problem, though, began long ago in Bhopal, a city that has faced problems with scientific waste management for years.In 2013, heaps of legacy waste at the city's Bhanpura dumping ground — and environmental pollution it caused — came up as a petition before the NGT's central bench. The tribunal ordered an FIR against nine IAS officers, who had been municipal commissioner of Bhopal till then.Though the order was later revoked, it was decided to shift the dumping ground to Adampur Chhawani in 2017. In 2018, the new dumping ground land came up on a 70-acre land even as Bhanpur was turned into a grassy hillock, which the BMC portrayed as the picture of transformation taking place in Bhopal.However, Adampur was "burdened" with heaps of legacy waste as capacity of the waste processing unit was 700 tonnes while Bhopal generated 850 tonnes of waste daily. Also, frequent incidents of fire at the new site in Adampur became a matter of concern.Not only its stench which made life hell for people living in the surrounding villages around Adampur but air pollution in the event of fire and leachette released from the waste particularly during rainy season contaminating groundwater in the surrounding villages were issues raised before the NGT and later before the supreme court as well.The petition was filed with NGT in 2023 after one such fire, leading to the Rs 1.8 crore fine. Activists even alleged that BMC deliberately puts the landfill on fire to get rid of legacy waste. When BMC went in appeal against the order in the SC, the apex court — during hearing of the petition -- felt that poor solid waste management across the country is bad, though rules were changed in 2002, 2016 and 2026. It felt that they were not being effective in the absence of proper execution.