NEW DELHI: Every year, Delhi hosts thousands of religious gatherings, political rallies, cultural festivals, trade fairs and weddings that attract lakhs of people. From the festival celebrations near the Red Fort to melas organised across the city, Kanwar Yatra camps set up along Delhi’s arterial roads, political rallies at Ramlila Maidan and Burari Ground, and large public events at Pragati Maidan, every gathering leaves behind mountains of waste. While these events conclude within hours or days, the garbage they generate lingers much longer.
The Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC) 2016 and 2026, the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) and the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, require organisers of large gatherings and bulk waste generators to provide adequate sanitation facilities, collect waste, segregate it and ensure its scientific disposal.
Yet, anyone who has attended a major mela or religious congregation in the capital has witnessed overflowing dustbins, plastic bottles and disposable plates scattered across grounds, and portable toilets in such poor condition that many visitors avoid using them altogether. During the annual Kanwar Yatra, for instance, temporary toilets installed at camps often become unusable within hours because they are not cleaned or emptied frequently enough.
In the fifth part of the series, we ask the obvious question—where does all this waste go? And an even more difficult question follows: what happens to the human waste generated by lakhs of people attending these events? On paper, the rules are unambiguous. Organisers of events attended by more than 100 people are classified as “bulk waste generators” under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016.
They are required to segregate waste at source into biodegradable, recyclable and domestic hazardous waste; provide adequate number of covered bins; ensure regular lifting of waste through authorised agencies; prevent littering; and restore the venue after the event.
Wet waste is expected to be processed through composting or biomethanation wherever feasible, while recyclable waste must be sent to authorised recyclers. Organisers are also expected to install portable toilets or bio-toilets connected to septic tanks, with licensed operators transporting the collected faecal sludge to authorised sewage treatment plants or faecal sludge treatment facilities.
In practice, however, enforcement remains weak, apparently. Environmentalists say there is little public disclosure on how much faecal sludge is actually collected from temporary toilets during festivals, who transports it and whether it reaches authorised treatment facilities.
Similarly, there is almost no publicly available information on how much waste was generated at a particular mela or rally, how much was recycled and how much eventually ended up at Delhi’s landfill sites. “Compliance reports, if prepared, rarely enter the public domain,” said one of the sources in the government.
The problem is not merely technical; it is administrative.
Delhi’s waste governance remains fragmented across multiple agencies. The Municipal Corporation of Delhi is responsible for door-to-door collection, transportation and disposal of municipal solid waste across most of the city.
The New Delhi Municipal Council manages the Lutyens’ zone, while the Delhi Cantonment Board oversees defence areas. The DPCC functions as the environmental regulator, monitoring compliance with pollution laws rather than collecting waste itself.
The Delhi government finances several waste management projects, while the Central Pollution Control Board, National Green Tribunal and the Commission for Air Quality Management continue to issue directions on waste processing, landfill remediation and environmental compliance.
The result is a governance maze where responsibility is shared but accountability often disappears. When waste accumulates after a major event, organisers point towards civic agencies for delayed lifting of waste. Meanwhile, the officials cite contractor shortages, inadequate landfill capacity and poor segregation at the source. Contractors blame delayed payments, while regulators point to enforcement limitations. Rarely is a single agency publicly held accountable for where every tonne of waste generated during a public event ultimately ends up.
This accountability gap is perhaps most visible at Delhi’s three towering landfill sites, which we have already talked about in part 4 of our series on Ghazipur, Bhalswa and Okhla, and which continue to receive thousands of tonnes of waste every day despite years of biomining and remediation efforts. Repeated directions from the National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court have sought to reduce the burden on these landfills, yet fresh waste continues to arrive daily.
Several start-ups and civil society organisations have spent years demonstrating that organic waste need not reach landfill sites if processed locally. One such start-up is Clean India Ventures Limited, which has been working in Delhi for the past eight years.
The founder, Abhishek Gupta, told the newspaper, “Our sole aim is to convert the organic waste into compost such that it doesn’t reach the landfill because according to our findings, 70% of the waste is organic. Our client segregates the waste while we,
with the help of small-size organic converters. It is like a chakki – here we grind the organic waste into a liquid form, and that is turned into a powder form, and the entire process takes approximately 24-36 hours.”
He added, “We are also working on three projects given by DDA where 1,000 kilos of waste are being treated on a daily basis. It has been eight years; we are working in Delhi, and we have started with the Delhi Cantt area.”
Another organisation working in this space is the Indian Pollution Control Association (IPCA), which has partnered with the Delhi government on decentralised waste management initiatives since 2001.
Deputy Manager at IPCA, Rahul Saini, said, “We have been holding drives in order to educate the residents to segregate the waste into dry and wet. We have installed composters in the societies which turn the organic waste into manure in approximately 45 days, and this is how the government is promoting such zero-waste societies in the city. Meanwhile, for the plastic waste, we have our own recycling plants.”
The technology to reduce Delhi’s waste burden already exists. Composting units, decentralised waste processing, plastic recycling, AI-based segregation and digital tracking systems are increasingly being deployed by private firms and non-profits. Yet these solutions have not become an integral part of the city’s management of large public events yet.
Sanjay, President of the Society for Environment and Sustainable Development, said, “If one in every mela, political rally and religious congregation is required to submit a sanitation and waste management plan, where are the compliance reports? If every bulk waste generator must segregate waste, how many have been fined for non-compliance?
If portable toilets are installed at public events, where is the record of the faecal sludge collected and its final destination? And if every landfill remediation project has defined milestones, who is answerable when deadlines are repeatedly missed?”
He also added, “The government does not manage human waste. There is hardly any treatment for it. It is because most of the treatment plants in Delhi are not even functional.
Out of 37, 23 are working and only on papers. This is the reason the human waste goes into the sewage and then to the drainage and then to the Yamuna. The Delhi government may have notified the solid waste management rules, but none of them have been implemented so far.”
Key provisions of the Solid Waste Management Rules, ’26
Bulk Waste Generator responsibility: Organisers of events attended by more than 100 people are classified as “bulk waste generators” under the Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016. They generate 100 kg or more of waste per day (or meeting the prescribed area/water-use thresholds) and are legally responsible for the waste collection, segregation, transportation and environmentally sound processing of the waste generated during the event. As a part of the framework, the organisers are also required to provide adequate number of covered bins; ensure regular lifting of waste through authorised agencies; prevent littering; and restore the venue after the event.