Landfill fire: ‘Like winter smog, a summer curse’
TNN | Apr 23, 2024, 08.22 AM IST
Ghaziabad: At 6.30 on Sunday evening, Varun Joshi had just entered his home in Abhay Khand 3 when he felt a burning sensation in his eyes. Initially, he thought people were smoking outside his flat in Mangalam apartment, but when he went out to check, he noticed the air had turned a thick grey.
Smoke was billowing from the Ghaziabad landfill, just across the border from the Indirapuram colony.
The landfill caught fire on Sunday evening, exposing thousands of people like Joshi, who live in apartment complexes next to the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Indirapuram and Vaishali, to toxic smoke. The blaze continued to simmer till Monday afternoon.
“Fire at Ghazipur during the summer months is as normal as air pollution during the winter in Delhi-NCR. Despite this being a recurring issue, no one takes any action on the ground. Either way, we are suffering,” Joshi said on Monday.
Manish Verma, who lives just a kilometre from the landfill in Kaushambi, said he had to turn on all three air purifiers in his house because he felt suffocated by the smoke.
“I suffer from heart ailments. I started feeling suffocated after fire broke out at the landfill. I had turned on all three air purifiers to avoid getting sick. Living here has been such a disaster,” Verma, who lives in Migson Homez, said.
Anil Kumar, who lives near Ghazipur, said his family members are not able to visit his house.
“My family and I were sitting in the drawing room when we spotted the plume of smoke from the landfill. We invested so much into buying a premium flat. Why? To inhale poison?... My mother has asthma. She can’t visit our house because of this mountain of waste,” Kumar said.
He added that his elderly uncle who was once visiting from Jaipur had to be hospitalised after exposure to gases released from the landfill.
The Ghazipur landfill now towers over a bustling urban stretch that begins in East Delhi and continues all the way to Ghaziabad. The area is otherwise a prime location because of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway that runs along it.
Locals, frustrated that no initiative has been taken to relocate the landfill, said its polluting presence, not just because of fires but also the stench, has become an unwanted constant in their lives.
Abhishek Kumar, also a resident of Migson Homez, said he had once believed that he was buying a flat in a good location due to its proximity with Delhi. “But the standard of living is below average because of the landfill,” he said.
Ashish (51) said he has been living in Kaushambi’s Udaigiri Tower for 17 years. He has considered shifting away, but never did as he had hoped the landfill will be cleared.
“NGT has imposed fines for improper management of waste. Still, nothing has changed. It feels like we are being pushed towards a slow death every day,” Ashish said.
In 2022, the National Green Tribunal had imposed environmental compensation of Rs 900 crore on the Delhi govt for 3 lakh metric tonnes of undisposed waste lying at three landfills of the capital, including the one in Ghazipur. It said there were “serious” violation of citizens’ rights and “failure” of public trust to protect the environment.
Before that, in 2019, NGT had directed authorities to start clearing legacy waste from the landfill sites. Still, waste dumped at Ghazipur has only continued to pile up.
On Monday, environmentalists said the only way ahead for avoiding such crisis is to take preventive measures.
“Methane, a highly inflammable gas, is generated at every landfill as organic waste decomposes. This is why landfills are prone to fires, especially in the summer when temperatures increase. The management body should have taken precautionary measures. It shouldn’t have reached this point,” said Dr Debajit Palit, energy expert and professor at the NTPC School of Business.
The last time that the Ghazipur landfill went up in flames was in June 2023. Before that, three incidents of fire were reported in 2022, including one on March 28 that took 50 hours to douse.
Smoke was billowing from the Ghaziabad landfill, just across the border from the Indirapuram colony.
The landfill caught fire on Sunday evening, exposing thousands of people like Joshi, who live in apartment complexes next to the Delhi-Meerut Expressway in Indirapuram and Vaishali, to toxic smoke. The blaze continued to simmer till Monday afternoon.
“Fire at Ghazipur during the summer months is as normal as air pollution during the winter in Delhi-NCR. Despite this being a recurring issue, no one takes any action on the ground. Either way, we are suffering,” Joshi said on Monday.
Manish Verma, who lives just a kilometre from the landfill in Kaushambi, said he had to turn on all three air purifiers in his house because he felt suffocated by the smoke.
“I suffer from heart ailments. I started feeling suffocated after fire broke out at the landfill. I had turned on all three air purifiers to avoid getting sick. Living here has been such a disaster,” Verma, who lives in Migson Homez, said.
Anil Kumar, who lives near Ghazipur, said his family members are not able to visit his house.
“My family and I were sitting in the drawing room when we spotted the plume of smoke from the landfill. We invested so much into buying a premium flat. Why? To inhale poison?... My mother has asthma. She can’t visit our house because of this mountain of waste,” Kumar said.
He added that his elderly uncle who was once visiting from Jaipur had to be hospitalised after exposure to gases released from the landfill.
The Ghazipur landfill now towers over a bustling urban stretch that begins in East Delhi and continues all the way to Ghaziabad. The area is otherwise a prime location because of the Delhi-Meerut Expressway that runs along it.
Locals, frustrated that no initiative has been taken to relocate the landfill, said its polluting presence, not just because of fires but also the stench, has become an unwanted constant in their lives.
Abhishek Kumar, also a resident of Migson Homez, said he had once believed that he was buying a flat in a good location due to its proximity with Delhi. “But the standard of living is below average because of the landfill,” he said.
Ashish (51) said he has been living in Kaushambi’s Udaigiri Tower for 17 years. He has considered shifting away, but never did as he had hoped the landfill will be cleared.
“NGT has imposed fines for improper management of waste. Still, nothing has changed. It feels like we are being pushed towards a slow death every day,” Ashish said.
In 2022, the National Green Tribunal had imposed environmental compensation of Rs 900 crore on the Delhi govt for 3 lakh metric tonnes of undisposed waste lying at three landfills of the capital, including the one in Ghazipur. It said there were “serious” violation of citizens’ rights and “failure” of public trust to protect the environment.
Before that, in 2019, NGT had directed authorities to start clearing legacy waste from the landfill sites. Still, waste dumped at Ghazipur has only continued to pile up.
On Monday, environmentalists said the only way ahead for avoiding such crisis is to take preventive measures.
“Methane, a highly inflammable gas, is generated at every landfill as organic waste decomposes. This is why landfills are prone to fires, especially in the summer when temperatures increase. The management body should have taken precautionary measures. It shouldn’t have reached this point,” said Dr Debajit Palit, energy expert and professor at the NTPC School of Business.
The last time that the Ghazipur landfill went up in flames was in June 2023. Before that, three incidents of fire were reported in 2022, including one on March 28 that took 50 hours to douse.