1 day Ago
Gurugram: Two days after firefighters doused the flames at the Bandhwari landfill, the site continues to smoulder, blanketing nearby localities in thick, toxic smoke. The persistent fumes are leading to deteriorating air quality and have triggered widespread health concerns, particularly in areas surrounding the landfill. The blaze, which began on April 26, has consumed over 3.
5 lakh litres of water so far. Despite round-the-clock deployment of fire tenders and civic teams working for extended hours, the fire’s after-effects remain unabated. Adding to the crisis, another massive fire broke out at the Dhanwapur garbage dumping site near Khandsa at 3:30am on Tuesday.
The blaze reduced nearly four acres of mixed solid waste to ashes and destroyed the makeshift homes of several ragpicker families. Residents, already struggling with foul air from Bandhwari, are now contending with the toxic haze from a second site. Despite repeated warnings to the authorities about the dangers of unchecked open dumping next to Khandsa Mandi and residential colonies, preventive measures were not enforced.
Environmentalists and residents have expressed deep anger over the repeated incidents, calling them a direct consequence of gross negligence, inter-departmental apathy, and lack of proactive waste management. Ruchika Sethi Takkar, founder of Citizens for Clean Air, said the Khandsa site has been a known fire hotspot since 2021, with at least 3–4 major fires each year. “This wasn’t a surprise, we flagged it weeks ago.
The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) issued directives to the pollution board last year to regulate industrial dumping here, but departments clearly failed to act in tandem,” she said, adding that the fires are fuelling Gurugram’s growing emissions crisis. MCG commissioner Ashok Kumar Garg said that multiple teams, including sub-divisional officers and executive engineers, remain stationed at Bandhwari to monitor post-fire conditions. “Even after dousing the flames, teams have been directed to monitor smoke emissions and ensure they do not reignite.
We are coordinating with fire officials continuously,” he said. However, critics argue that the absence of basic fire prevention infrastructure, such as firelines or water sprinklers, shows a lack of preparedness. Environmental activist Bhawani Shankar Tripathy, vice president of RWA Sector 23A, said waste management in Gurugram has turned into an unregulated enterprise, endangering lives and ecosystems.
Referring to the Dhanwapur blaze, he said, “That waste godown, built by informal pickers, stores highly flammable material without oversight. This is a systemic failure. Who allowed this? Who owns the land? Why didn’t enforcement agencies intervene earlier?” Tripathy and others have demanded a full audit into the ownership and safety compliance of informal dump yards and called on MCG, the police, and the pollution board to clarify whether they were aware of the fire-prone conditions.
Experts are also pushing for ward-level waste segregation and industrial waste mapping. “Fires will keep happening unless structural reforms are introduced,” said Takkar. “We need the district administration, pollution board, and health department to treat waste fires as a health emergency.
Right now, there’s no sign they do.”.
