Bombay HC ‘surprised’ at persistent odour, methane emissions from Kanjurmarg landfill despite orders, seeks CCTV surveillance | Mumbai News
4 min readMumbaiMay 8, 2026 03:56 AM IST
The Bombay High Court on Thursday “expressed surprise” over grievances related to odour and emission of dangerous gases including methane from the Kanjurmarg dumping site in suburban eastern Mumbai between 1 am and 6 am that still have not been “satisfactorily resolved” by the authorities despite orders, affecting workers at the site and lakhs of people in the vicinity.
It said that concrete steps were required to be taken to control the odour and directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to install additional CCTV cameras at the dumping facility and its live coverage to be linked to the civic body’s office through its website, to monitor activities at night hours. It also sought to know if additional waste from an abattoir or some other place was arriving at night. The court said the late-night monitoring should be undertaken on a continuous basis.
The court also directed that the presently operating complaints portal shall be made more “citizen-friendly” and immediate redressal be provided by the BMC. It also observed that reports of the independent third party and monitoring van at the facility merely provided levels of respective gases emitted from the dumping facility without recording findings on their effect on the environment. The court also said safety measures for the workers at the site, who are most vulnerable, should be undertaken.
A bench of Justices Girish S Kulkarni and Aarti A Sathe was hearing pleas of residents of Kannamwar Cooperative Housing Society Association Ltd, situated in the vicinity, and NGO Vanashakti, raising issues concerning disposal of municipal solid waste at the Kanjurmarg dumping site. The judges visited the site on April 25.
On Thursday, senior advocate Anil Sakhare, representing BMC, submitted its affidavit filed through Chief Engineer (Solid Waste Management) detailing the steps taken to supervise vital aspects of odour and emissions at late-night hours. The steps included deployment of officers at night to identify quality of waste and to monitor receipt of waste during the night-time operations. Moreover, the BMC claimed to have deployed a mobile air pollution monitoring van at the dumping facility for continuous air pollution monitoring. The affidavit also stated that experts’ help will be taken to prepare a plan of action for forestation in the area to be undertaken before the monsoon.
The bench sought to know what is the actual cause and trigger of the night odour. “We want to know it because we are keeping a watch through our sources and making inquiries with them. There was no odour for 3-4 days after we passed the April 27 order and it was perfectly fine. But today, why it has changed and suddenly what went wrong? There is something wrong that you have to identify. You are very close to the problem and to identify this odour,” Justice Kulkarni orally told the BMC and the contractor.
“The seriousness and magnitude of this issue is hence beyond any measure. The stakeholders are therefore expected to devote a highest level of commitment and concern regarding the issue of odour and emissions which affects the citizens at large, apart from the damage being caused to the environment and ecology,” the HC noted.
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After perusing authorities’ response, the HC directed that along with BMC’s six officers, the representatives of the petitioner and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) shall also form part of the team to keep a vigil during night hours ‘to ensure a participative, open and transparent process of carrying out these checks.’”
Seeking compliance with its orders along with response affifavits, the HC posted the matter for further hearing on June 11.
