NGT intervenes to save Vrindavan from garbage threat

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued notice to the Uttar Pradesh government and the Mathura-Vrindavan Development Authority asking why landfill sites have not been provided in Vrindavan to stop the dumping of garbage in the Yamuna flood plains.

The replies have to be filed by May 21.

As news of this reached the district headquarters, frantic efforts were being made to look for new dumping grounds and landfill sites to scientifically dispose off tonness of domestic waste and garbage.

The petitioner Madhumangal Shukla has drawn the tribunal's attention to continuous pollution in Yamuna due to the illegal and unregulated garbage disposal in Vrindavan.

The current practice of dumping municipal solid waste in front of Tatiasthan, on the Yamuna flood plain, has reached such an alarming state that in many instances the river has been pushed as far as 300-400 meters away from the ghats of Vrindavan.

That the entire environment of the city of Vrindavan is suffering due to the non-implementation of the Municipal Solid Wastes (Management and Handling) Rules, 2000 as the garbage is now being disposed off in drains, leading to clogging and stagnation, or is being burnt for minimisation, which has exposed the affected area to a host of respiratory diseases.

Shukla said Vrindavan is a town with 5,000 temples, some of which date to the 1570s and has numerous picturesque ghats that extend all along the right bank of the Yamuna river.

It is the Yamuna's presence along the sprawling and purifying ghats, which gives Vrindavan its sacred character.

However, of late, Yamuna is loosing her beauty and purity.

The illegal construction in the flood plain area has only worsened the crisis of the Yamuna.

Officials say they have to comply with the NGT directive to provide for dumping pits in urban areas in the next two months, but land for pits and land-fill sites is not available in Mathura and Vrindavan.

In Vrindavan and Mathura, the waste from many temples is being converted into compost using vermicompost technique.

"But the problem of segregating garbage and then disposing it off in a scientific method will take time. Even medical waste disposal facilities are not currently available in the district," said a municipal worker Murari Lal.

In Mathura, there is the additional problem of industrial effluents and waste finding way to the river Yamuna, untreated.

(Brij Khandelwal can be contacted at brij.k@ians.in)