Locals in Ammanabolu village in Telangana's Nalgonda district have reportedly uncovered 13 tonnes of pharmaceutical waste, that had been dumped in a secluded spot.
The Telangana State Pollution Control Board (TSPCB) said that it had been notified, and tests were being conducted, after the waste was transported to Hyderabad, around 100 km away.
The Deccan Chronicle quoted Tahsildar Krishna Murthy saying, “Some farmers found the drums. Since nobody frequents this area we are not sure about when they were dumped or who was responsible.”
The DC report also adds that officials cleared up soil in the area, as there was slight leakage from the drums.
The police have registered an FIR, and investigation is underway.
This incident comes barely two weeks after TSPCB filed a police complaint against unidentified persons after officials stumbled upon 9.96 tonnes of biomedical waste at Quthbullapur.
Officials had visited the area based on complaints by local residents, and found several things like needles, syringes, discarded medicines, dressings and other such material.
PCB officials said that the bags that were dumped, even had the labels of more than 20 healthcare establishments. They were all issued a show-cause notice.
The Bio-Medical Waste (Management and Handling) rules, 1998, dictates that Plastic, rubber and glass disposables like gloves, bottles, syringes, tubes and urine bags are supposed to be sterilized and shredded.
The rules catergorise bio-medical waste into 10 different categories, and specify a method of disposal for each of them.
Last month, the TSPCB seized a tanker that was allegedly headed to dump toxic industrial waste into Hyderabad's Musi river.
Authorities carried out a planned operation, and intercepted the tanker at Choutuppal, along with senior PCB officials and the police, to find that it was transporting 10 to 20 kilolitres of untreated effluents.