CHENNAI: Residents of Chitlapakkam woke up to a blanket of toxic smog on Monday morning. The illegal landfill bordering the Chitlapakkam lake, which caught fire on Sunday night, smoldered through the wee hours until it was finally extinguished by fire personnel after daybreak. While there have been a few incidents of the landfill catching fire in the past, the timing, nature and magnitude of this incident has aroused suspicions that the landfill was set on fire. Sunil Jayaraman, a resident of Chitlapakkam, who was one of the first people to witness the inferno, claimed that the landfill caught fire in two different places. “We were finishing up a community event at the lake and suddenly, we saw flames in the landfill. So we rushed to the spot and alerted the Fire Department,” he said.
Fire personnel who rushed to spot corroborated his claim. “The nature of the fire indicates that it started at multiple places and spread before becoming a single inferno,” said fire personnel who were putting out the flames on Sunday night. When Express visited the spot late on Sunday night, the 0.63-acre site was a smouldering mess. The smoke had also greatly reduced the visibility on the Chitlapakkam Second Main Road which runs parallel to the landfill. A considerable amount of trash had turned into ash and residue.
Biomining of the illegal landfill began in March after years of public outcry. The waste was being taken to Erumaiyur to be biomined by a private party to whom the `20-lakh tender was awarded. However, officials in the Chitlapakkam town panchayat told Express that the private party backed out in mid-April and the work was handed over to another private party from East Tambaram.
Sources in the town panchayat said that the party, who was initially awarded the tender, had backed out because of feasibility issues. Locals claim that the landfill was set on fire to reduce the amount of trash that had to be biomined. Mahesh, executive officer of the town panchayat, said he would investigate the cause of fire. However, with both guards assigned for the landfill, claiming to have been on a tea break when the fire started, local activists fear the investigation wouldn’t make much headway.