200 acres of Perungudi landfill reclaimed for marshland

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the civic body would stop dumping garbage at the Perungudi landfill, one of the two landfills in the city, and process the legacy waste dumped over several years.

The civic body had earlier planned to create a circular pyramid park at the landfill by utilising a portion of the 200-acre land. “Now the plan is changed and we have decided to leave the entire land as marshland without any project. The project of converting landfill into marshland would take three to four years to complete,” the official said.

Explaining the action plan, the official added that the civic body is planning to set up additional decentralised waste processing facilities such as compost yards, resource recovery centres and recycling plants. “Once the land is reclaimed, there will be no construction or other projects. The land belongs to the civic body.” “With these added capacities, we will stop sending waste to Perungudi landfill. After the dumping of garbage stops, we have a proposal to dispose of the legacy waste by the bio-mining process. Once the legacy waste is cleared, the land would slowly attain its marshland quality,” he said. The Chennai Corporation has already started bio-mining in erstwhile dumping sites near Pallikaranai, Sathangadu and Athipattu. The bio-mining process involves segregation of organic and inorganic waste to be converted into manure or other products.

Meanwhile, PS Raman, an amicus curae appointed by the Madras High Court recently submitted a report saying that more than 100 acres of Pallikaranai marshland has been encroached upon by central government buildings. The report also added that the wetland, which was over 50 sqkm before 30 years, has been reduced to 3.17 sqkm now. At present, the civic body sends around 2,400 tonnes of garbage every day to Perungudi landfill that abuts the marshland. The 200-acre landfill is in use for over 30 years.