Garbage Hits New Ground

Aviation safety norms ban garbage near airfields, yet Kashmir’s new site defies logic and law alike.

- Dr. Raja Muzaffar Bhat

On June 20, 2025, Pulwama finally got the news it had waited years for: the garbage dump at Dangerpora was shut down.

For families living next to that giant, stinking landfill, it felt like a small victory. The air had reeked for years. Flies, filth, and rising heaps of rotting waste had become part of daily life. They had begged officials to move it, again and again.

Finally, the dump was gone, or so they thought. Relief came, but it didn’t stay long.

Soon after, I started receiving calls from another village: Newa. A new dumping site, they said, had been created there, without any public notice and scientific process, and in complete violation of the law.

On July 19, I visited the site. What I saw confirmed their fears. Dangerpora hadn’t been shut in the name of reform. It had been shifted.

The new garbage station sits on Haes Khudd, an elevated karewa plateau in Newa. It is common village land, used for grazing by Gujjar-Bakarwal families, home to apple and almond orchards, and sits less than 400 meters from a freshwater stream called Parigam Nallah.

Waste was already leaking downhill during the rains, mixing with the stream. Videos of faecal sludge tankers dumping sewage at the site have gone viral. No action has followed.

The Municipal Council Pulwama did not seek consent from villagers, hold a Gram Sabha, or follow any process outlined under the Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) Rules, 2016.

A senior citizen from Newa, Ghulam Mohammad Wani, told me, “They came with police and handed over our common land to the municipality. This was done behind our backs. We were never asked. ‘They've violated every norm.”

That violation runs deeper than just consultation.

The MSW Rules 2016 require local authorities to ensure waste is segregated at the source. Organic, recyclable, and reject waste must be collected separately. None of that is being done.