Madhya Pradesh High Court Seeks Expert View On Plastic-Coated Landfill, UCC Incineration At Pithampur

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): The Jabalpur High Court has sought expert opinion on the viability of using a plastic-coated landfill to dispose of chemical waste from the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) at Pithampur.

On Monday, the bench comprising Justice Atul Sreedharan and Justice Dinesh Kumar Paliwal directed that representatives from the National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and Madhya Pradesh Pollution Control Board (MPPCB) be present for the next hearing scheduled for July 31.

The court also emphasised the need for medical examination of residents living near the site, following multiple health complaints linked to waste disposal process.

The Pithampur site has been earmarked for disposing of toxic waste generated during the 1984 Bhopal gas tragedy, but concerns are mounting over the potential leakage of toxins through the plastic lining of the landfill. Activists and locals have pointed out that any seepage could contaminate Gambhir river and Yashwant Sagar dam, both of which are key sources of drinking water for Indore.

Rachna Dhingra, convener of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action (BGIA), said that only 1% of the 350 metric tonnes (MT) of UCC chemical waste has been incinerated at Pithampur so far. The company responsible for the disposal has now proposed using a plasticsheet-coated landfill for burying around 900 MT of incinerated waste—three times the original volume.

Residents from 42 nearby locations have raised serious concern about health hazards, prompting the High Court to order both technical and health-based assessments before any further disposal action is taken.