BMC to move SC on Kanjurmarg dumping ground order

MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court order restoring Mumbai’s only active landfill at Kanjurmarg to the status of a “protected forest” has left the civic authorities in a bind. With the 142-hectare plot serving as a dumping ground for 90% of the city’s solid waste, the BMC has decided to approach the Supreme Court to challenge the high court order.

“If we aren’t allowed to continue using it for waste processing, we will seek time to find an alternative place where waste can be dumped and processed. Since there is a crisis of land in Mumbai, if we are forced to stop it overnight, the city will come to a standstill,” said a civic official present at the meeting where a decision was taken to file a Special Leave Petition (SLP) in the apex court.

Although the plot occupied by the landfill was originally classified as a “protected forest”, the high court had in April 2006 allowed the BMC to use it as a dumping ground following an assurance that no mangroves would be destroyed in the process. However, in December 2009, the BMC de-notified the plot, which the court has ruled was done without following due process stipulated under the Forest Conservation Act, 1980.

In its order on Friday, the court ruled that “119.91 hectares is consequently restored to the status of being a protected forest”. It added, “Any proposal to de-notify the same would need to be compliant with the due process stipulated in Section 2(1) of the FCA. In the circumstances, we grant MCGM three months’ time to comply with the consequences of this judgement,” the order stated.

Civic officials said the Kanjurmarg site currently holds more than 20 lakh tonnes of solid waste, accumulated over a decade of use.

This would take anywhere between 5 and 10 years to clear. Waste at the site is processed using two methods. Of the 6,500 tonnes of solid waste generated by Mumbai daily, around 4,000 tonnes is treated using the bioreactor landfill process. In this method, the land has been divided into seven bioreactor landfill (BLF) cells. When one cell reaches capacity, the next is put to use, while the previous is left for decomposition. After about five years, the decomposed waste is biomined—a process in which the waste is excavated, screened, and segregated into refuse-derived fuel (RDF), compost, and biosoil, which are then sold or recycled.

“Cell 7 will be ready for use shortly. In the meantime, Cell 1, which has been undergoing biomining for the last two years at 2,000–3,000 MT per day, will be ready for reuse in around 18 months, by the time Cell 7 reaches capacity,” explained Mahendra Ananthula, group president of Antony Lara Enviro Solutions Pvt Ltd, which has been operating the site since it began functioning in 2015.

The remaining 2,000 tonnes of waste is sorted at a material recovery facility (MRF), where organic waste is turned into compost and dry waste is shredded to create RDF. This process is more expensive and difficult to scale, which is why not all of the city’s waste can be treated this way, Ananthula added.

“We sold 1,50,000 MT of RDF to cement companies last year, who use it as a fuel source due to its high calorific value,” he said. “As for compost, we sold 25 tonnes to fertiliser companies.”