Amid public outcry, the Kerala government has sent a team to Tirunelveli to bring back illegally dumped medical waste in several areas of Tamil Nadu. A team led by a senior official and supported by eight trucks from Thiruvananthapuram began removing the hazardous waste on Sunday, according to local media reports.
After this garbage was found in the Tamil Nadu-Kerala border area, the locals protested. Six cases were registered after the locals filed a complaint with the Suttamalli police. Two people, including the owner of the truck and a supervisor of a Kerala-based waste management company, have been arrested on charges of illegal dumping.
The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal ordered the Kerala government to complete the removal by December 23. Tirunelveli District Collector Karthikeyan questioned the Kerala team’s assessment of the waste and suggested that if it was non-hazardous, there was no need for such covert operations. . He stressed that strict action should be taken to prevent such incidents from happening in the future.