page_title: Mavallipura
hierarchical_section_title: Mavallipura
caption_attribution_description: English: Landfill leachate tank at Mavallipura landfill
context_page_description: Mavallipura is a village to the north of Bangalore. A part of the village, about 15 km north of the main part of the city was used as an illegal landfill from 2003 to 2015 resulting in an ecological disaster.
  The village of Mavallipura had about a population of about 4500 with many involved in livestock rearing, grazing sheep, goat and cattle on the common grazing lands. Mavallipura was used from around 2003 to dump about four million tonnes of garbage to become a large heap 40 m high and spread over several hectares. n the early years the BBMP paid and signed a contract with a local farmer to dump garbage on his site, and it was discovered later that the land on which they dumped actually belonged to the Karnataka Forest Department. A larger plot of former grazing land was later leased out to a company called Ramky. The landfill was then operated by Ramky and garbage came from the Bangalore metropolitan authority or BBMP. The company was set up in a position to handle 500 tons per day but even in the early days the inputs were as much as 1000 tons/day and rose to an estimated 3600 tons/day in 2015. The garbage production of the city rose to 4500 tons per day in 2017.
context_section_description: Mavallipura is a village to the north of Bangalore. A part of the village, about 15 km (9.3 mi) north of the main part of the city was used as an illegal landfill from 2003 to 2015 resulting in an ecological disaster.
  The village of Mavallipura had about a population of about 4500 with many involved in livestock rearing, grazing sheep, goat and cattle on the common grazing lands. Mavallipura was used from around 2003 to dump about four million tonnes of garbage (at about 1000 tonnes a day in that period) to become a large heap 40 m high and spread over several hectares. n the early years the BBMP paid and signed a contract with a local farmer to dump garbage on his site, and it was discovered later that the land on which they dumped actually belonged to the Karnataka Forest Department. A larger plot of former grazing land was later leased out to a company called Ramky. The landfill was then operated by Ramky and garbage came from the Bangalore metropolitan authority or BBMP (Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike). The company was set up in a position to handle 500 tons per day but even in the early days the inputs were as much as 1000 tons/day and rose to an estimated 3600 tons/day in 2015. The garbage production of the city rose to 4500 tons per day in 2017. The site was not identified by any administrative body based on public discussions and it was within the catchment of the Arkavathy river which flows into Kaveri which in turn supplies drinking water to the city of Bangalore. The toxic leachate from the unlined landfill site polluted the local lake and groundwater, resulting in deaths of villagers by kidney failure, cancer, and a range of illnesses. Burning of the garbage produced toxic fumes and flies were a major nuisance. The local population included many dalits and their voices were unheard. The open garbage attracted large scavenging birds like black kites resulted in a birdhit that caused the death of a pilot and posed a constant risk to Indian Air Force aircraft landing at the Yelahanka airbase. Livestock morbidity was high and after numerous complaints, the Karnataka Pollution Control Board took notice in 2012 and passed an order to stop the dumping. This resulted in garbage accumulation within the city of Bangalore and a crisis was recognized in 2014. However the dumping continued and in August 2015, a protester from the village, which had decided to blockade the garbage trucks, died of shock after facing police. The site operations were shut down only after being visited by a group of judges. One of the results of the case was that Bangalore became the first Indian metro to establish a solid waste management plan.
  Studies on the movement of leached pollutants predict that they will flow along the hydraulic gradients of the area.
caption: Leachate tanks seen from atop the landfill heap (2019)
exif: {"Image Tag 0x0220": "0", "Image Tag 0x0221": "0", "Image Tag 0x0222": "0", "Image Tag 0x0223": "0", "Image Tag 0x0224": "0", "Image Tag 0x0225": "", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image ImageDescription": "", "Image Make": "OPPO", "Image Model": "realme 1", "Image Software": "MediaTek Camera Application", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image DateTime": "2019:11:16 17:57:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "414", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1314", "Thumbnail Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "40576", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "1181", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Unidentified", "EXIF FNumber": "11/5", "EXIF ExposureTime": "7499/250000", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "40", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "40", "EXIF SubSecTime": "40", "EXIF FocalLength": "173/50", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF LightSource": "other light source", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1166", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "0", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2019:11:16 17:57:00", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "3120", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2019:11:16 17:57:00", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "4160", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100"}