Bengaluru has, at most, one year before one of its main garbage sites – the Bellahalli landfill – runs out of space.
The city generates roughly 6,000 metric tonnes of waste every day, distributed across six landfill sites in Bellahalli, Mittaganahalli, Kannur, Chikkanagamangala, Kannahalli, and Doddabidarakallu. Of these, Bellahalli is approaching its maximum capacity. Once it is full, authorities have warned, the city will face a "hazardous situation".
The government's answer is a shuttered waste plant in Gundlahalli village of Doddaballapura taluk, a site that was closed in 2016 after years of environmental damage, unprocessed waste, and protests.
Now, the state plans to acquire the land. Residents are opposing the move. And the legacy waste left behind from the last time the plant operated – 1,29,406 metric tonnes buried in 30 shallow pits – still remains at the site.
Government documents reviewed by TNM show that the Karnataka government has initiated steps to acquire 134 acres of land in Gundlahalli village, where the former waste processing facility operated by Terra Firma Biotechnologies Limited once stood. The proposed acquisition, intended to help address the city’s growing garbage crisis, has triggered objections within the government and renewed resistance from residents who say the site’s earlier operations contaminated groundwater and farmland.
When TNM visited recently, five to eight workers were present inside the compound, carrying out gobbara kelsa, manure-related work.
They stopped us from going further, saying they had been instructed not to allow anyone inside. Large quantities of legacy waste, they said, lay deeper in the premises.
Nearly a decade after the plant shut down, the site may once again become part of Bengaluru’s waste management system. The move puts the spotlight back on authorities who dumped more waste than the plant could process.
It also raises questions about the company that ran it, which villagers call responsible for an ‘environmental crime’ and may now stand to profit from the deal.
The government's plan to acquire the land
For years, the city’s waste management strategy has relied on establishing large, decentralised processing facilities on the outskirts of the city. Earlier proposals identified four potential locations for Integrated Solid Waste Management (ISWM) plants. Doddaballapura in the north, Mandur in the east, Bidadi in the west and Gollahalli on Bannerghatta Road in the south.