The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Drugs bonfire sends bottle pieces flying

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Drugs bonfire sends bottle pieces flying

By P. Oppili

CHENNAI, FEB. 10. Road users and motorists on Perungudi-Pallikaranai Bypass Road were a little alarmed after bottles started landing on the road on Thursday afternoon.

Around 2 p.m. some persons on a van laden with medicines (whose validity period had expired) dumped the drugs and materials on the marsh, near a spot where a culvert was being built. They then poured fuel on the pile and ignited it.

The drug bottles cracked and broke in the heat, and some of the pieces landed on the road, according to Rajesh Rangarajan of Toxics Link, a non-governmental organisation working for environmental issues and campaigning for better management of hazardous wastes.

A team from the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board, headed by Kamaraj, District Environment Engineer, arrived at the spot. The team collected samples from the burnt medicines and assured volunteers of Toxics Link that they would initiate action against the violators.

On information, the Fire and Rescue Service personnel put out the fire in about 15 minutes. Mr. Rangarajan said that only a fortnight ago, the Monitoring Committee of the Supreme Court visited the industries in northern suburbs of the city and discussed with them the safe disposal of hazardous wastes. The organisation wanted the pharmaceutical company to take responsibility for removing the expired medicines and clean up the area, he said.

Bird watchers and ornithologists, who visit the Pallikaranai marsh regularly, said that this was nothing new. Normally, truckloads of chemical wastes were brought and dumped into the marsh after dark. From the time the Corporation began using the marsh as a dump, many industries also used the place as if it was a designated dumping yard. Nature lovers and bird watchers for long have been demanding that the marsh be declared a protected land; and that the Corporation find an alternative site for dumping garbage from south Chennai. Similarly they want the release of raw and untreated sewage into marsh be stopped forthwith, to protect the remaining portion of the wetland. But, so far no action has been taken either by the Wildlife authorities or the district administration, they said.

Terrapins rescued

In a related incident, two persons who caught fresh water terrapins (turtles) were warned and let off by a couple of environmental activists.

Around 5 p.m. two persons were seen carrying a gunny bag containing 10 terrapins coming out of the marsh. Nature lovers who were around told the youths not to collect terrapins from the marsh.

The youths said they were not aware that the reptiles should not be collected.

However, all the collected terrapins were released back into the marshland.

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