Eastern India‘s largest garbage dump Dhapa has now been converted into a ‘green plateau’ by Kolkata Municipal Corporation. The dump was wrapped with plastic sheets and covered with soil enough to fill 18 football pitches.
Though the 11-storey high dump had remained inoperational since 2009, 4,500 tonnes of waste was dumped daily. The landfill, next to city’s arterial bypass road, saw fires raging continually for 5 years, contributing to Kolkata’s air pollution and affecting 30,000 nearby residents. Commuters would have to cover their face to escape the stench.
Set up in 1941, the dump exceeded its capacity in the 1960s and reached critical mass in 2012.
