The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the Principal Secretary of Urban Development, Himachal Pradesh, and sought a reply in the Beas pollution case.

The case pertains to the discharge of untreated leachate into river Beas at village Rangadi, gram panchayat Shallen, Manali in violation of the provisions under the Water Act, 1974 and Solid Waste Management Rules framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986.

The Himachal Pradesh State Pollution Control Board (HPSPCB) has told the NGT that during an inspection on January 3, heaps of fresh mixed waste was found at the site in the village of Rangadi.

“A lot of legacy waste was also found at the site which is required to be processed scientifically. It was further observed that compost pits provided at the facility were filled with mixed waste, biomethanation facility, and biocomposter were not provided despite repeated directions issued by the State Board,” said HPSPCB’s report.

It added that the retaining wall provided around legacy waste towards river Beas was found damaged near Gau-Sadan and waste was found overflown towards the bank of the river due to over stacking of fresh waste over the legacy waste site. “The leachate collection pits which were earlier provided by the facility have been washed away during the flash floods and the leachate was found flowing into river Beas without any treatment,” said the report.

Earlier, on June 17, 2021, HPSPCB had imposed a penalty of Rs 5 lakh on the Municipal Council (MC), Manali, for environmental violations. Later on May 10, 2023, Environmental Compensation (EC) of Rs 15.30 lakh was also imposed on the local body for the discharge of untreated leachate into river Beas. A fresh show cause notice of Rs 31.80 lakh was served on MC Manali on January 24 for polluting Beas.

During a hearing on January 25, the NGT observed that MC Manali hadn’t deposited Environmental Compensation (EC) till now. It directed HPSPCB “to take all appropriate steps to recover the amount of EC” and “file a fresh action taken report at least one week before the next date of hearing”.

The NGT said, “We find that waste generated and collected is not processed as per MSW (Municipal Solid Waste) Rules and on account of mismanagement, the waste is getting disposed into streams or rivers. Further, the issue of processing waste coming from other places in the Kullu district is unresolved and the State Urban Department needs to ensure that appropriate waste processing is done with the allocation of finances.”

It added that there were serious lapses on the part of MC Manali in remediating the solid waste and clearing the legacy waste as treating the daily generated waste.

MC Manali submitted before the NGT that a total 16,363 MT of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) was received last year (January 2023 to December 2023) from which the 7,386 MT (45 percent) of Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) has been sent to different plants of Himachal Pradesh, and the rest 15 percent of rejects or inert material (2,500 MT) is lying out at site due to non-availability of scientific landfill site in the area. Also, approximately 5-7 percent of recyclable (glass, plastic, rubber, iron, and other recyclable) material has been recovered from the MSW (1,145 MT) and sold out to the scrap dealers.

Approximately 33 percent of MSW (5,399 MT) including biodegradable material is still lying at the site due to non-processing. “We have no space for the scientific processing of biodegradable waste,” said MC Manali.

The next date in the case is April 5.