Activists raise alarm as leachate from Bandhwari spills into Aravalis

Discharge from the landfill contaminating groundwater, putting human lives and wildlife at risk

A day after early morning downpour in Gurugram on May 23, Vaishali Rana, a wildlife activist, and her friend Roma Jaswal Vinayak, a waste management activist, visited the Bandhwari landfill to check on the recurring discharge of highly toxic and untreated leachate into the Aravalis from the site, especially after heavy rain.

Ms. Vinayak, who videographed the pits filled with leachate on her phone, said if the discharge spilled over to the forest only after a few hours of rain, one could easily imagine what the situation would be like during the monsoon.

The two activists, along with several local environmentalists, have been constantly fighting against the leachate being discharged from the landfill site into the Aravalis for the past several years, harming the wildlife and contaminating the groundwater.

‘ Spreading to new areas’

“We have been pursuing this issue with the authorities since 2017. Vaishali has a trail of emails sent to municipal officials, but to no avail. Every time it rains, the leachate spills over to a new spot. The spot we saw this time was not there the last time,” said Ms. Vinayak.

Ms. Rana said a report by the Central Pollution Control Board in 2017 had revealed that groundwater of three villages around the landfill site was contaminated. Another report by the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute two years later confirmed that the contamination had spread to two more neighbouring villages. “With the amount of solid municipal waste being dumped at the site going up every year and the authorities being the least bothered, the situation has worsened. It has been three years since the last report, and I have serious apprehensions that the contamination would have spread further to Gwal Pahari and Ghata village,” said Ms. Rana.

Plea with NGT