Srinagar's Trash Hills Are Rising. So Is The Stench.

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
Achan Dumping Site. KO Photo by Syed Burhan.

Every time I visit Old Srinagar, the smell hits me before the traffic does.

It creeps in through the car vents somewhere around Eidgah and only gets worse as you move closer to Saidapora. It's not just a bad smell. It's a wall. Thick, rotten, heavy. The kind that sticks to your skin and won't let go.

But here's the thing. I don't live there. I stay about 22 kilometers away, near Chadoora. I could've ignored all this and moved on with my day. But how long can you look away when an entire population lives beside a mountain of garbage, and no one seems to care?

The Achan Saidapora dumping site in Srinagar holds over 11.5 lakh metric tonnes of legacy waste. These aren't just numbers. These are actual hills of filth that have grown unchecked over decades.

Earlier this year, on March 20, I was in New Delhi at the National Green Tribunal (NGT), where the Commissioner of Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC), Dr Owais Ahmad, was summoned.

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The bench – made up of Justice Prakash Srivastava, Justice Sudhir Aggarwal, and Dr Senthil Veil – had serious questions. So did I.

In court, Justice Aggarwal didn't mince words. He told Dr Owais straight:“Srinagar is unfortunate to have such kind of officers who have no concern for people and environment.”

That stung. Not just for the officer, but for the city that has been abandoned to its stink.

Following the hearing, Dr Owais gave an undertaking. He promised the NGT that all 11.5 lakh tonnes of legacy waste would be cleared in two years. The method? Bioremediation. The deadline? Firm.

But before we could even begin to see change, Dr Owais was transferred. Gone. Just like that. No explanation, no follow-up.

What does that say about the seriousness of the government?

You can smell the answer.

People in Buchpora, Lalbazar, and of course, Saidapora, tell me they feel trapped in their own homes. Children get rashes, elderly complain of breathing problems. Flies swarm the drains and courtyards.“We can't eat in peace, we can't breathe in peace,” one woman told me near the local mosque.“It's like we are being punished for something we never did.”

This, I believe, is a human rights violation.

So why did I go to the NGT? Why fight a battle I could easily ignore?

Because someone had to. And because this isn't the first time.

I've taken multiple environmental cases to the NGT. From illegal mining in Beerwah and Chadoora to wetland destruction in Wullar and Hokersar, I've seen how judicial pressure can wake up the system.

In Doodh Ganga's case, we managed to get over ₹140 crore sanctioned for cleaning and restoration.

Last July, after I filed the Achan case, the Central Pollution Control Board and Environment Ministry sent a team to inspect the site. We all gathered there - SMC officials, pollution control officers, and myself.

The report that followed confirmed what we already knew: Srinagar Municipal Corporation had violated environmental laws and solid waste rules. For years.

When the NGT heard the matter again in March, apart from the SMC Commissioner, officers from JK Pollution Control Committee and CPCB were present. My legal team, including Advocate Rahul Chowdhary and Advocate Itisha Awasthi, stood with me.

The SMC admitted that Srinagar currently produces 1,600 tonnes of waste every day, and by 2028, this could hit nearly 2,000 tonnes.

With this scale of mess, where is the plan?

Even more shocking, the JKPCC revealed that waste management rules were violated for 1,800 days between 2020 and 2025. That's nearly five years of continuous failure.

The NGT has initiated penal action against eight former SMC commissioners, from Dr Shafqat Khan to Dr Owais Ahmad himself. They've all been held responsible under the Environment (Protection) Act.

But penalties alone can't clean these trash hills.

Even local politicians are now speaking up. Syed Altaf Bukhari, president of Apni Party, recently visited the area and publicly admitted how unbearable the stink has become. He called for urgent spraying of disinfectants and the development of a modern waste management plant. But that's just damage control.

The bigger question is: why did it take a public health crisis for leaders to notice?

After this year's Eid ul Azha, things got worse. Animal waste piled up along with the usual household garbage. Combine that with 30-degree heat and you get a cocktail of rot and disease.

I'm trying everything I can. I write about this issue in local papers. I speak about it on social media. I've met religious leaders, including Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and urged them to raise this issue from the pulpit.

The people of Saidapora, Eidgah and nearby localities want him to speak up, and the chief cleric seems willing. Friday sermons are powerful platforms. If political leaders won't act, maybe the mosque can stir their conscience.

Some say waste management is not under the domain of elected governments. That's false. This is a basic responsibility. Clean air, clean water, clean neighbourhoods are not luxuries. They are rights.

Srinagar deserves better. The people of Saidapora deserve dignity. And if that means showing up at court again and again, I will do it.

Chief Minister Omar Abdullah should also visit the site. Smell what the people smell. See what they live with. Make a promise not to me, but to them. A promise that these garbage hills will not outlive their children.

I am always ready to help the government. But it has to start with admitting that this problem is real, urgent, and within their power to fix.

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