A pyrrhic victory?

Aurovilians were no doubt thrilled by the fact that after four years of legal wrangling, the case against Puducherry Government for mismanagement of waste at Karuvadikuppam, the dump site close to Auroville, was brought to a close with an injunction from the court that stated the following: a) existing inorganic waste, namely “plastic and other inert materials like glass and ceramics” be removed; and b) “all necessary steps for afforesting the site with suitable tree species [be undertaken] so that the site is totally reclaimed” (Court Order of April 5 by Hon’ble Shri Justice Dr. P. Jyothimani, Judicial Member). But a closer look at what we asked and hoped for and what we got belies our sense of victory.

To begin at the proverbial beginning, it was almost a decade ago that Aurovilians started to petition the Puducherry Government for better waste management of its municipal solid waste that it was dumping at Karuvadikuppam. In the seventies and eighties, people were not particularly bothered by the Karuvadikuppam dumpsite because the waste being dumped was almost totally organic. Plastic, especially the ubiquitous plastic bags that are choking India’s landscape now, were almost non-existent. With the globalization of the Indian economy in the nineties and subsequent increase of consumption of fast moving consumer goods, over 300-400 tons of unsegregated municipal solid waste started to be dumped at Karuvadikuppam, with 10% of it being plastic waste.

When waste is unsegregated, the organic matter decomposes and produces the highly inflammable gas methane, which autocombusts and sets the plastic component of the waste aflame, producing toxic fumes. Open air burning of plastic creates some of the most deadly toxins known to science – dioxins, furans and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) –that are released into the air, soil, and water and ingested by all.

In the summer months, with the change in the direction of the wind, Auroville and the surrounding villages used to get smothered by dark, acrid smoke emanating from the dumpsite. In 2007, the villagers filed a case in the Chennai High Court against the Puducherry Government for mismanagement of waste. That case was eventually thrown out by the court. But subsequently, in 2012, on the basis of a petition signed by over 3,000 villagers and Aurovilians, concerned citizens (including Indian Aurovilians) filed a more strongly-worded case on the same issue with the National Green Tribunal of India. In the four years that the case dragged on, with statements and counter-statements, affidavits and counter-affidavits, rejoinders back and forth between the petitioners and the defendants, Aurovilians supplied evidence to the court that the dumpsite soil was contaminated with a high level of mercury and requested that bio-remediation of the soil be undertaken and the use of Karuvadikuppam be stopped once and for all.

Neither of these requests has been sanctioned in the closing order of the case. Bio-remediation of soil is still a discipline in its infancy, but already in India, there are documented cases of successful bioremediation of soils contaminated with heavy metals. In Kerala, volunteers associated with Mata Amritanandaymayi’s Ashram successfully remediated a historic landfill over a span of few years to the extent that now the land (which once had high concentrations of heavy metals including lead, arsenic, and mercury) can be safely used to grow food crops. In a planned process, the volunteers used specific plants such as vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides) to induce phytoremediation of the soil and two species of earthworms (Eisenia fetida and Eudrilus eugeniae) that had a proven ability to transform contaminated soil. By merely ordering Puducherry Government to remove inert waste and plant trees in a span of just eight weeks, the court has absolved them from the duty of restoring public land to a state of health.

From the wider perspective of a citizen concerned with social and environmental justice in India, this court case, as with so many court cases filed in the interests of the public, is emblematic of the problems that arise when, due to poor governance, the judiciary takes over the role of both the executive and the legislative arms of the government. It was only in 1979 that the Supreme Court allowed for Public-Interest Litigation (PILs) to be filed by a third-party for the protection of the public interest. Prior to this landmark ruling, only aggrieved parties had the right to approach the courts for justice. The Supreme Court cited “executive inaction” as the reason for introducing PILs, stating that the laws enacted by Parliament and the state legislatures for the poor since Independence have not been properly implemented. With pleas to the government for appropriate action often falling on deaf ears, the common man quickly seized public interest litigation as a principal legal remedy.

Since the eighties, court ledgers have been overflowing with PILs clamouring for social justice and, increasingly, environmental justice. Indeed, there were so many environmental cases filed in the court that in 2010 the Supreme Court instituted the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to expedite the resolution of these cases. The problem with the judiciary taking over executive roles is that, as exemplified above with respect to bio-remediation, the court often lacks the expertise required to execute an action properly. And as the court is the last resort for justice, there are no further avenues to pursue in the case of an inadequate ruling. Interestingly, however, it was a PIL filed in the Supreme Court against the Union of India filed by Almitra Patel in 1996 and settled four years later that led to the adoption of India’s first waste laws, colloquially known as MSW Rules 2000. The Puducherry Government was and is still guilty of violating this law by not segregating organic and inorganic waste.

In other words, after all these years of litigation, we have gained nothing. The problem has merely been shifted from Auroville’s backyard, Karuvadikuppam, to Kurumbapet where unsegregated dumping of waste along with emanation of toxic fumes continues. Many environmental activists feel that Kurumbapet is in an even more eco-sensitive zone given its proximity to Usteri lake and the resultant ecological habitat. Not surprisingly there is a PIL against the Kurumbapet dumpsite that is still pending with the NGT.

Nor, as mentioned earlier, do we have complete assurance that Karuvadikuppam will no longer be used as a dumpsite. When the case was not yet resolved, there was a stay order by the NGT on dumping at Karuvadikuppam, which is, of course, now rendered invalid. But, in 2012, the Tamil Nadu government prevented Puducherry dump trucks from passing over Tamil Nadu territory to access Karuvadikuppam, thereby effectively stopping dumping at this site. However, this move by the Tamil Nadu government along with the proximity of Karuvadikuppam to the Pondicherry airport, gives us some hope that this site will never be re-utilized as a dumpsite. The present ruling will also act as a deterrent. But given the magnitude of India’s developmental problems and the quicksilver nature of its politics, such hopes can also be dashed in the coming years. And I, for one, am not holding my breath that the dumpsite will be afforested in the coming years.

What, then, do I celebrate? Perhaps this: not the end of a long journey, but the journey itself! I truly enjoyed the process of working with a motley ad-hoc group of Aurovilian volunteers which had no formal status, structure or hierarchy, but in the four long years of litigation, every time something needed to be done, someone or other volunteered to do this job. Also, for me, this was one of the few times when Auroville successfully collaborated with concerned citizens in its neighbouring areas (both the surrounding villages and Pondicherry suburbs) on an important issue. Last but not least, we were grateful for the support of the larger Auroville community. Apart from larger donations by some, many Aurovilians gave us a small monthly contribution out of their monthly maintenance, and these funds helped us to pay for the expensive soil tests, lawyers’ fees, consultations with environmental experts etc.

We still have some funds left in the account, which will be donated to waste- management initiatives in Auroville.