Imagine wearing house slippers to work, rather unprofessional, no? Now imagine if the workplace were a landfill, makes it a lot more dangerous than losing your job, eh? Pankaj Kumar, a trommel machine operator with Alfatherm, at the Bandhwari landfill site, spoke with Healthonair, covered in leachate up to knee lengths and worn-out slippers. “It is dangerous work, I have no choice or else I’d not be doing such a thing myself.”
The Bandhwari landfill lies on the Faridabad-Gurugram border. It has been a focal point of environmental concerns due to its impact on air quality, groundwater, and local communities. The landfill has faced issues with overflowing waste, fires, and leachate leading to protests from residents and environmental activists.
The garbage dump spells doom for everything around it. This includes the Aravallis’ flora and fauna, whose habitat it infringes, the villagers who live near the landfill, and the workers who work on the garbage dump site in various capacities.
Workers at the landfill also allege payment delays and a lack of a safe work environment. Apart from the absence of safety equipment such as boots, jackets, helmets, and health insurance, worker deaths on the site of the landfill have a lot of them worried.
Two workers lost their lives while at the site of the landfill in 2024, according to independent, and media sources. The latest of these deaths was of a 21-year-old named Robi Yadav, who happened to be a trommel machine operator at the site, much like Pankaj Kumar.
Bhumi Green and AlfaTherm are the two companies that have been given tenders to treat and reduce waste at the site. Bhumi Green’s officials denied the occurrence of deaths at the site, while AlfaTherm’s official, Aditya Rathore, told us that such things “happen” and that it was a natural death.
“The death was a natural one, what can we do about it? A part of the waste slid and the guy fell. He wasn’t related to Alfa Therm in any way, he was a contractual employee” (employed by Alfa Therm), Rathore said.
There was enough hue and cry about the incident when it happened. Raj Babbar, a former MP with the Congress Party visited the landfill and even claimed to go on “a protest, and plan a hunger strike,” to raise alarm to the issue.
The death was later covered up by giving the victim’s family a sum of 5 lakh rupees, while no further investigation or corrective measures took place at the site.
The MCG, and the private vendors have offices right next to the landfill bed. Photo Credit: Siddhant Vashistha
“The MCG (Municipal Corporation of Gurugram) did not do anything about the death. They just let the vendor handle it. Even an FIR wasn’t filed on the vendor, while they continue to be operating at the site,” said Vaishali Rana, an environmentalist, and a petitioner in a case concerning legacy waste at the Bandhwari landfill site in the National Green Tribunal (NGT).
The MCG did not respond to HealthonAir’s queries regarding the event’s mishandling.
Workers at the landfill are also exposed to various harmful materials and toxic gases. A Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group report found that the pulmonary health of outdoor occupational groups is heavily impacted by air pollution. The study focused specifically on Safai Karamcharis and waste pickers and found that stereotypical gloves and masks are not the only PPE that this group needs.
One of the study’s authors, Shruti Sinha, said that “it was essential that any worker who works with waste directly, wear protective gear such as masks, gamcha or cotton cloth to cover the head, face and nose.”
However, after more than four months since the incident, the landfill’s operations are as bleak and unsafe as before with little or no changes made to ensure safety at the site.
Pankaj Kumar works in chappals on the landfill floor without any protective gear. Photo Credit: Siddhant Vashistha
On being asked why the workers were not wearing any kind of safety gear, officials of both the companies, Bhumi Green, and Alfa Therm, denied this reality.
“We do have masks, helmets, gum boots, and other safety materials, and the company has provided us with everything,” Bhumi Green’s Rajesh Tiwari told Healthonair in a makeshift office on the site where none of the employees had any gear on them.
“There is no work on this site right now due to rain, which is why the workers are not wearing any gear. I have the complete gear myself,” Aditya Rathore told us while simultaneously giving out commands at the site.
Locals and residents’ issues
The landfill has now become a significant health hazard for the locals living nearby it. Apart from multiple cases of cancer, locals from the villages of Bandhwari, Mangar, and Baliyawas, also spoke about the air pollution and toxins in their food and water due to the landfill.
Sources revealed that both the Haryana State Pollution Control Board (HSPCB) and the National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI), have conducted independent tests on the water in this region and found it to be contaminated. Additionally, the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has also been tasked with studying the water contamination levels in the area around the landfill.
However, the NGT has not recognized any of these issues with the water, heavy enough to be considerable in scrapping the No Objection Certificate (NOC) of the MCG according to Vaishali Rana. She added that cancers were unheard of in the region since it was a forest area but its cases have mushroomed ever since the landfill came into being. However, a survey was never carried out to gauge the exact number of cancer patients in the nearby villages. “Instead, there have been health camps where they were checking for BP, blood pressure, sugar level, thyroid, or some stomach infections”.
“To my knowledge, there are at least 15 cancer patients in Mangar alone due to this landfill, and 15 have died due to cancer*. Mainly due to the leachate and the air pollution that comes with it,” says Sunder Harsana, who is also a resident of Mangar village. Mangar is close to a valley around the Aravalli hills and has had its water contaminated by the landfill’s leachate.
A systematic review of studies from 2005 to 2020 examined the health risks of living near municipal solid waste (MSW) management sites, such as landfills, incinerators, and dumpsites. The findings suggest some increased risks of adverse birth outcomes, mortality, respiratory diseases, and mental health issues to such people.
“‘Yahaan ki hawa bahut kharaab hai khatte (landfill) ki wajah se,’ The air stinks, it is really unbearable, the smell, and there a lot of flies and mosquitoes too, which was never the case back when the landfill wasn’t in existence,” says Veer Singh, who is an Ayurvedic Doctor at the Baliyawas village.
At Bandhwari village, the landfill’s presence can be felt in the air and in the locals’ frustrations about it. Problems similar to those in the other two villages exist, but on a bigger scale due to Bandhwari’s proximity to the landfill.
Apart from the cancers and the leachate, the villagers also find it hard to have their concerns heard at the policy level. “We have knocked on the court’s doors, we have spoken with Mahesh Dayma, the Corporator of this ward, and have even requested Gurugram’s 4 time MP Rao Inderjit Singh to do something about this menace, however, all of that, and more, has met a dead-end. Removal of the landfill has become an empty promise.”, says Balbir Singh, a village elder.
Compounding the health problems is the fact that there is not even a dispensary, doctors, or a decent public hospital near the three villages.
“We have to travel 30 km afar to Gurugram or to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi to get any kind of medical intervention”, says Rajbir Singh, a Bandhwari local.
Village elders at Bandhwari narrate their plight of having to live with the landfill. Photo Credit: Siddhant Vashistha
“If there is a 10,000 rupee challan for a vehicle running without a pollution check and the government gets away scot-free for polluting our air, water, and land, it showcases the government’s misplaced priorities and discrimination towards us village folk,” Praveen Kumar, another Bandhwari local told HealthonAir.
The Aravalli issue
What’s more alarming is that the Bandhwari landfill is built on an ecologically sensitive zone (ESZ) of the Aravalli ranges. It also lies close to Mangar Bani which is a sacred grove forest that is also one of the only few of such kind around Delhi-NCR.
Out of the 30 acres used for the landfill, 14.86 acres are situated on land protected under the Forest Conservation Act.
A view of the dumpsite from Bandhwari village, in between is the Aravalli Range. Photo Credit: Siddhant Vashistha
Moreover, there has been news of the landfill taking up increasing amounts of space in the forest. HealthonAir found out that the landfill on the field had no particular boundaries.
Sunder Harsana caters to at least 500-600 workers from the site through his makeshift tea thadi (counter). “They have expanded well into the forest boundaries by about 70 feet in front of my eyes,” he told HealthonAir.
Vaishali Rana said something similar about the landfill slipping over into the forest land. She told us that “the MCG is in clear violation of the 1992 Aravalli notification where they are not only degrading and polluting the forest but also encroaching upon it by occupying something like 40 acres with tacit permission for 30.”
The 1992 Aravalli Notification was issued by the then Ministry of Forest and Environment of India restricting certain activities in specified areas of the Aravalli Range due to environmental degradation. It prohibits locating new industries, expanding existing ones, new mining operations, cutting trees, constructing new buildings and electrification projects without prior permission.
On being asked why the MCG has a forest NOC even after gross violations of the Forest (Conservation) Act, Haryana’s Forest Department claimed that it is taking measures to curb such malpractices by issuing challans and sending out warning letters.
“The NOC hasn’t been withdrawn yet. We’re looking at a report right now (to see) if there are encroachments on the site. We have also issued challans against the companies operating at the site. We have written a letter to the MCG Commissioner and the Commissioner of Urban Local Bodies to look into the matter and if the damage to the forest isn’t rectified we will withdraw the NOC.” Anant Prakash Pandey, Additional Chief Conservator of Forest (Wildlife Gurugram) said.
Trucks filled with waste take up a sizeable portion of the road near the landfill. Photo Credit: Siddhant Vashistha
Solutions and Conclusions
Chintan’s Shruti Sinha says that landfills would not be a problem if we were segregating our waste at source. She recommends systems in place to tackle the problem at every level – household, municipal, and state.
“We need to promote a decentralized model to make it possible to have segregation because once you do that the enforcement will be better,” Sinha said.
There are models to follow in cities like Chandigarh and Bhuvneshwar, that Delhi can learn from, according to Sinha. “They have systems in place, which have, accountability, and incentives, which is that, people who do segregate their waste, they’re either recognized, by an award or a sticker or things like that, not necessarily money, but something, and the ones that don’t, they get fines as well” Sinha added.
Sinha said that the system of bioremediation being done at the Bandhwari landfill is a step in the right direction but “it’s only effective as long as you can stop the fresh waste completely and you just keep clearing out the legacy waste.”
This means that the landfill problem only goes away if we stop dumping waste in it, start treating it, and segregate the waste at the source.
“Your eventual goal is to get rid of the landfill, of course. It’s like filling a full glass with water. If you keep filling it, it will overflow. Even if you keep reducing a bit by bit, it will still overflow.”
*Sunder Harsana’s claims could not be independently verified.
This reporting was supported by a grant from the Chintan Environmental Research and Action Group. Chintan has not exercised any editorial control over the contents of this article.
