With inadequate landfill capacity and limited door-to-door collection, informal dumping and open burning became common practices, especially in the city’s outskirts and the 100 villages newly absorbed by the BBMP when it transitioned from BMP to BBMP.
Bengaluru: People living in the vicinity of Chiikkasubbanna Road, within Hagadur Ward, in Mahadeva Pura (Bengaluru East Corporation limits), often witness an absolute nightmare: unidentified people burning garbage at night, causing severe air pollution.
Anupama, a resident of the area, says that with doors closed, her air pollution monitor showed a PM 2.5 reading of 247 on the night of October 4—a level indicating very unhealthy air quality that might lead to serious health effects for vulnerable groups, particularly older people and those with underlying health conditions.
The Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Report (2021) estimated that nearly 15–20% of municipal waste is still burnt illegally, releasing toxic pollutants such as particulate matter (PM2.5), carbon monoxide, and dioxins. These emissions contribute to the city’s deteriorating air quality—Bengaluru’s average AQI frequently crosses 120 in certain zones, well above safe limits.
Despite the Karnataka High Court’s repeated interventions since 2012, enforcement remains patchy. Citizen-led initiatives and segregation drives, notably after the 2012 landfill crisis, have improved awareness but not eliminated the problem.
The combination of plastic waste, poor segregation, and inadequate processing infrastructure keeps fuelling small-scale fires across neighbourhoods.
When school grapples with soot
Ravindra, a 65-year-old citizen from the erstwhile Hemmigepura ward in South Bengaluru, sees garbage dumped and burned regularly on Holiday Village Road, especially near a government high school.
“We have gone door-to-door asking people not to dump garbage, but people don’t listen. They come on bikes, throw garbage and run away. The garbage is later burned, but we don’t know who does it. It causes health hazards to the students at the school. This needs to stop,” says Ravindra.
There is a coconut farm close by. The leaf litter there is sometimes burned, too. “We can’t live here, the soot fills the atmosphere sometimes and leads to health issues,” he adds.