NEW DELHI: The Wildlife Institute of India (WII) will conduct a study on how the dumping of inert civic waste in the abandoned Bhatti mines, which are now part of the Asola Wildlife Sanctuary, can affect the flora and fauna of the region, forest officials said.
On behalf of the three municipal corporations in the capital, the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) had in 2020 moved a proposal to use four 30-metre-deep pits measuring 477 acres for dumping of inert waste as they run out of space to store million of tonnes of inert material generated in the city.
The Ridge Management Board (RMB), a high-powered body mandated to protect the Delhi Ridge, considered the lungs of the capital, had set up a five-member panel in March last year to examine the proposal.
In its meeting held on July 29 last year, the panel had suggested that a study be conducted on the likely impact of dumping of inert materials on the flora and fauna of the region.
The WII, which also has a representative in the five-member panel, will conduct the environment impact assessment in this case, a senior forest official said.
“The WII sent a proposal earlier this month and we have forwarded it to the RMB. The Board will take a call on it in its next meeting,” he said.
Earlier, officials had said the proposal to dump the inert civic waste in the mines was likely to be rejected as majority of the members in the panel had opposed it on the ground that the area has over the decades become an ecologically-sensitive water recharge zone and habitat of variety of flora and fauna, including leopards.
The city government had notified the mines as a wildlife sanctuary in as early as 1991. The mined pits have undergone geomorphological processes which transformed them into water bodies that act as recharging zones. Some of the pits store rainwater even today, environmentalist Prof C R Babu said.
According to orders of the National Green Tribunal and High Court, these water bodies cannot be used as dumping grounds, but should be restored and preserved for recharging groundwater. These water bodies are the only source of water for animals, he said.
Waste generation to go up at landfills
According to NGT directions issued in 2019, the MCDs are undertaking biomining of legacy waste at Okhla, Bhalswa and Ghazipur landfill sites which is expected to generate 200 lakh metric tonnes of inert waste.