The Rot Beneath Srinagar

Years of waste mismanagement at Kashmir’s largest landfill is now poisoning lakes, wetlands, and people. The law has spoken. Why won't the government act?

- Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat

In March this year, the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC) assured India’s top environmental court that it was finally ready to clean up the Achan landfill.

A detailed action plan was submitted to the National Green Tribunal (NGT). Promises were made: a nonfunctional leachate treatment plant would be revived, the nauseating odour would be neutralized, and dangerous legacy waste would be treated using scientific methods.

Four months later, those promises lie in the same place as the landfill’s garbage: untouched, decomposing, and dangerous.

I've been visiting and documenting the Achan landfill for years. The latest images and videos I obtained just days ago reveal the same horrifying truth I’ve seen repeatedly: untreated leachate continues to leak from the mountain of waste and is being pumped directly into nearby agricultural land, wetland areas, and into a drain leading to Anchar Lake.

This is the same site where over 11.5 lakh metric tons of unprocessed municipal waste has been dumped for decades. This is also where a treatment plant exists only in theory, and public health concerns are ignored year after year.

Leachate is more than a foul-smelling liquid. It’s a chemical cocktail, born when water percolates through waste, absorbing bacteria, heavy metals, and toxins. It seeps into groundwater, contaminates surface water, and destroys soil fertility.

At Achan, leachate has been flowing freely into Kashmir’s fragile ecology. It is endangering Anchar Lake, Khushal Sar, Gilsar, and even the Shalbugh wetland, a Ramsar site meant to be protected under international convention.