Plastic reappears in Basai 1 month after clampdown

GURUGRAM: Plastic bottles started reappearing in Basai wetlands barely a month after the authorities cleared the area of garbage and served a notice to a recycling unit for dumping plastic materials. The dumping of thousands of used bottles has created a giant mound of plastic on the fringes of the wetland in Gurugram, not far from the controversial plant to treat construction and demolition waste.
According to residents, mounds of plastic bottles returned to the site on Saturday morning.

“The area was clean after MCG got the waste removed from here last month. However, we saw a few trucks dumping plastic bottles at the same site on Saturday,” said a resident.

After TOI carried a report on June 9 on plastic waste being dumped at Basai wetland and a waste material entangling the beak of a black-necked stork, the environment minister intervened and rid the wetland of the plastic dump.

With the waste returning, birders blamed the authorities for not keeping a tab on the dumping of plastic waste at the Basai wetland. “It is shocking that the authorities couldn’t check the dumping and it took place exactly at the same spot. It is a tight slap on the authorities that served notice and lifted the plastic waste after media highlighted the issue. We demand immediate ban on dumping of waste near the Basai wetland,” said Pankaj Gupta, a birder from Delhi bird foundation, an NGO.

However, the owner of the plastic recycling unit said the dumping of waste was carried out by one of his contractors without his knowledge.

“One of the contractors dumped the waste. I never carried out any operations in last one month aft er the authorities’ notice. I assure you that the waste will be lifted within a couple of hours,” said Arvind Dalal, owner of the waste recycling unit.