For over a decade, villages in Tamil Nadu bordering Kerala have become dump yards of almost every kind of waste, often unsegregated, from Kerala. While some lorries have valid documents, numerous other instances of stealth dumping have been recorded. No amount of vigil has helped end this obnoxious practice – a major health risk because of the presence of biomedical waste. A TNM ground investigation into KERALA’S CROSS-BORDER DUMP YARDS.
While passing through the villages of Pudupatti, Panayamkurichi, and Kuruvankottai in Tamil Nadu’s Tenkasi district, and Karumbanur and Edayal on the outskirts of Tirunelveli district, it’s hard to miss the small tin sheds by the wayside. Columns of black smoke rise from the back of these sheds, producing a constant acrid smell. Outside are piles of electronic waste and white plastic sacks filled with many kinds of refuse. The sheds belong to scrap dealers who accept electronic, plastic, and biomedical waste, segregate them for bits they can monetise, and then burn the rest.
For more than a decade, villages in Tenkasi and Tirunelveli have become the dumping yard for southern Kerala. Lorries that transport vegetables grown in Tenkasi to Kerala often return with unsegregated solid waste, crossing the checkposts at Puliyarai in Tenkasi and Padanthalumoodu in Kanyakumari. The waste includes that from slaughterhouses and healthcare facilities, despite laws that ban their transportation without segregation. The scrap sheds are found mostly on barren private lands, which are close to agricultural fields and residential areas. Alert eyes keep a watch on the sheds and no stranger is let off without being questioned. Trading in waste and allowing them to be dumped for segregation and burning seems to have become a lucrative business for some people in these villages.
“The waste from Kerala is being dumped here in two ways. One, the lorries dump them in the yards of scrap dealers who burn them after segregation. Two, the waste gets dumped on farmlands, near water sources, or on the roadside,” a senior journalist from the region tells TNM.
Multiple incidents of waste dumping have recently been recorded in farmlands and near water sources in Tenkasi. A case was registered at the Thiruvengadam police station in the first week of November 2022 after sacks of poultry waste were found dumped in a farmland in Naranapuram village. A few days later, waste materials, including hazardous biomedical waste, was found in the same village, dumped next to an oorani (drinking water pond).
Perumalsamy from Naranapuram found waste was dumped on his farmland twice just in November last year. “In the first instance, it was electronic and poultry waste. When I informed the civic authorities and the police, they burnt it there itself. Two weeks later it happened again. This time it included waste from hospitals, such as medicines and syringes. The bags had Malayalam lettering. I did not allow the authorities to burn it. Why should we inhale all the smoke? They cleaned it up, and later one person was arrested,” Ayyappan, Perumalsamy’s son, told TNM.
Environmental activist Chidambaram, who is the president of the NGO Tamil Nadu Nature and Environment Association which had approached the Madurai Bench of the Madras High Court in 2018 seeking action against illegal waste disposal, said that their water bodies are getting polluted as the dumping has gone on for many years.
“There were syringes, bloodstained clothes, and medicines apart from poultry waste near the oorani. Pharmacy prescriptions found at the site were written in Malayalam. We also found number plates of old vehicles with Kerala registration among the waste,” Chidambaram says. When it rains, the run-off from the waste flows to other areas polluting them too.
“Biomedical waste dumping is scary and can lead to the spread of diseases. Only recently have the police started filing cases, that too rarely. Authorities too don’t take any action. The checkpost in Puliyarai is 2 km inside the Tamil Nadu border. There is no checking and the lorries can easily dump the waste before they reach the checkpost,” he adds.
Waste from Kerala
The dumping of waste and burning them without no concern for the environment or health of the people in a region traditionally known for supplying vegetables to Kerala has caused a lot of ill-will among the residents.
Muthukutti, a daily wage worker and small-scale farmer from Karumbanur, says that they have blocked the lorries coming to their village many times. “I know someone who has a five-acre land in which they collect waste and burn it. At night, we get a strong smell of plastic being burnt. When we blocked a vehicle one night, we found hospital waste in it. The villagers here have no clue about the hazards they face by inhaling the toxic fumes. Very few people here are concerned about it,” says Muthukutti, adding that most of the vehicles come from Kerala.
Muthukutti, farmer
Chellappa, another farmer, says that they have approached the landowner multiple times asking him to stop the practice. “They appoint children to segregate the waste; no safety precautions are taken. The workers handle needles and other biomedical waste without even using proper gloves. The owner has started burning the waste at midnight now because we’re making it an issue,” he adds.
Though TNM tried to meet landowners who deal in scrap, they were not ready to talk.
Dharmaraj, vice president of Idaikal panchayat in Tirunelveli district, says that lorry drivers are paid handsomely to carry waste while returning from Kerala. “We send vegetables, pulses, and grains to Kerala and this is what they give us in return. These lorry drivers are paid Rs 4,000 to take the waste. The Kerala government should immediately intervene in the issue,” he says.
Following reports in the media and protests by local residents, scrap dealers who burn waste on barren lands have increased surveillance and don’t allow anyone to go near the sheds.
Dharmaraj, vice president Idaikal panchayat
Kerala has two facilities where biomedical waste is treated – Indian Medical Association Goes Eco-Friendly (IMAGE) in Palakkad’s Puthussery panchayat, and Kerala Enviro Infrastructure Limited (KEIL) in Ernakulam’s Ambalamedu. The quantity of biomedical waste generated in the state is estimated to be around 50 to 60 tons per day. The IMAGE plant at Palakkad has the capacity to treat about 80 tons of biomedical waste per day. KEIL claims that their Common Bio-Medical Waste Treatment Facility has the capacity to treat 16 metric tonnes of biomedical waste per day. Experts say these facilities are not sufficient to treat the waste generated in Kerala.
“IMAGE is taking up more waste than it can handle, which is causing huge trouble to the local people. IMA wanted to hold a monopoly in medical waste treatment in the state, they were even against KEIL. The facilities are not sufficient,” says Shibu K Nair, India Coordinator for Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA). While IMAGE is located in the northern part of Kerala, KEIL is in central Kerala. There is no such facility for the entire south Kerala.
Shibu says the waste being dumped in the border districts of TN could be from healthcare establishments in Kerala that don’t want to pay the IMA for waste disposal. “It could also be because the treatment facilities are so saturated that they cannot take up any more waste. Years ago, before biomedical waste treatment facilities were set up, hospitals in Kerala used to discard their waste in a dumping yard in Salem,” he says.
That no segregation is carried out before the biomedical waste is transported is another huge concern. “This would result in the entire quantity of waste becoming infected,” says Shibu. Many hospitals have installed incinerators, which they use to dispose of everything. After a while, the incinerator might stop working, which would again lead to practices like illegal dumping.
A private hospital administrator from southern Kerala told TNM that they have an agency through which they dispose of the waste. “For the last many years, an agency has collected waste from us. They take the waste in lorries and we pay them depending on the quantity. As far as I know, the waste is taken to some treatment facility,” he says.
According to activists in Tenkasi, there are private agencies and middlemen who help hospitals transport their waste to the border villages.
IMAGE currently handles more than 82% of the biomedical waste generated in Kerala, as per information available on its website.
IMA state president Sulphi Noohu told TNM that it’s highly unlikely that the biomedical waste is being transported from Kerala hospitals. “If a hospital has to get sanction from the state Pollution Control Board, they have to get a contract from IMAGE. So there is a rigorous system and it is unlikely that the waste is taken outside state borders. IMAGE has the capacity to treat the medical waste produced in the state. Now we are about to start another plant in south Kerala, so the waste from that region can be treated there,” he says.