Expressing dismay over Tiruppur Corporation having been dumping the waste generated by its residents inside abandoned quarries for years together, the Madras High Court on Tuesday permitted the civic body to set up a temporary waste storage site at Iduvai village until it establishes enough number of micro composting centres within the Corporation limits.
Justice V. Lakshminarayanan granted permission for the temporary site for a maximum period of six months beginning from December 15, 2025 despite stiff opposition by the residents of Iduvai village who did not want the waste generated by the Corporation residents in their backyard. The judge also gave them five days time to challenge his order before a Division Bench of the High Court.
He lamented that the Corporation had been dumping the waste at the abandoned quarries in Mudalipalayam between 2011 and 2021. When residents of Mudalipalayam protested, it shifted the dumping to other areas, but came back again to Mudalipalayam forcing a resident P. Velusamy, represented by senior counsel T. Mohan, to file a writ petition against such dumping of unsegregated garbage in Mudalipalayam as well as Nallur.
The judge passed an interim order on October 10, 2025 directing the civic body to store the water only at the micro composting facilities available in Tiruppur and went about finding a solution to the problem since it was reported that the Corporation generates 573 tonnes of municipal waste every day. He said, ideally, people should not generate waste or dispose of the waste within their homes.
However, when such an ideal situation does not appear to have taken place in any city, the residents must at least have the responsibility of segregating the waste at source. If the residents had failed to do so, the Corporation ought to have educated them, the judge said and recorded that Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) had agreed to establishment of a temporary storage site at Iduvai subject to stringent conditions.
He directed the Tiruppur Corporation to follow those conditions scrupulously and warned of severe action if any of them were flouted. He made it clear that the Corporation should make sure that the Parambikulam Aliyar Project (PAP) canals passing near the Iduvai site should not get polluted at any cost and that the leachate generated at Iduvai should be disposed safely at Sewage Treatment Plants.
The judge also took serious note of the submission made by Advocate General P.S. Raman that after the Corporation stopped dumping garbage in Mudalipalayam quarry sites, some unscrupulous industrialists began using the legacy dump site for disposing of industrial waste. This had led to high concentration of dangerous chemicals such as chromium in the groundwater.
“Instead of leading by example, the civic body has shown a way to breach the laws. While reams of paper can be written on the mistakes of the Corporation, it does not give a solution. While the residents of Tiruppur have been running behind rapid development, they have forgotten their duty to themselves and to their neighbours. Tiruppur Corporation is equally responsible for not reminding the residents of their duty,” the judge remarked.
He ordered that after establishment of enough number of waste storage sites and micro composting centres in the Corporation limits within six months, it must dismantle the temporary site at Iduvai and restore it to its original position.
Published – December 09, 2025 10:26 pm IST
