On Monday, 23rd December, the Tamil Nadu Police seized 4 huge trucks stuffed with food and fish wastes and a vehicle loaded with human excreta in Kanniyakumari. The vehicle was apparently coming from Kerala. As per the reports, the police have been keeping watch over the border areas of the state to prevent the movement of vehicles loaded with waste from Kerala entering the district.
In the early hours of Monday, the vehicle (TN96 E 1979) stuffed with food waste along with another lorry loaded with human excreta was stopped by the state police near Kaliyakkavilai. An initial probe into the matter revealed that the vehicles were on their way to Kanniyakumari from the Thiruvananthapuram district of Kerala.
Notably, the driver of the vehicle carrying human excreta and one of his associates have been arrested by the police and the authorities are making all the efforts to send the loaded vehicles back to Kerala. The arrested individuals have been identified as R Manikandan and B Vallimurugan of Tirunelveli.
Meanwhile, another truck loaded with food waste has been seized by the police at Krathoor within Nithiravilai limits and its driver Vishu has also been arrested. Reports suggest that the food waste was being shifted to a pig farm in Nagercoil. However, the civic authorities have been asked by the police to destroy the waste and impose a fine on the concerned parties instead.
Further, as per the reports, two more vehicles loaded with fish waste traveling from Kollam, Kerala, were seized by the police in the Puthukadai police limits. Upon interrogation, the three drivers traveling with the vehicle claimed that the waste was being transported to Koodankulam in Tirunelveli district for processing.
This comes just a week after the southern bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directed the Kerala government to remove hazardous biomedical and solid waste that was illegally dumped in the state of Tamil Nadu. The court emphasized that such illegal dumping of waste posed environmental hazards to parts of Tamil Nadu’s border districts.
The illegal dumping of hazardous waste by Kerala sparked massive outrage in Tamil Nadu as the waste continued to find its place in the water bodies, farmlands, and forests in Tirunelveli district. The NGT then initiated a suo moto case and directed Kerala to take back the waste.
Since then, Tamil Nadu officials have scrutinized the borders to check if any other vehicles loaded with waste are being transported from Kerala to the state. Notably, this is not the first incident where Kerala is shifting its waste to Tamil Nadu. Similar incidents in Nanguneri, Theni, and Anamalai have also drawn sharp criticism.
The first such incident is believed to have happened in the year 2021 when the locals of Chemmanampathy seized lorries stuffed with biomedical waste arriving from Kerala. Since then massive checkpoints have been established along the borders to check if any waste is being transported from Kerala to Tamil Nadu.
Reports mention that truck drivers always opt for new routes to make their way into the state for stealth dumping. At present, the issue is being faced by 6 border districts identified as Kanniyakumari, Tenkasi, Tirunelveli, Theni, Coimbatore, and the Nilgiris.
In the given case, the trucks have been seized, the drivers have been arrested and the interrogation is underway. Further details are awaited.
