Poop falling from skies! NGT orders inspection

A former senior Armyman has moved the National Green Tribunal alleging dumping of human waste by aircraft over residential areas near IGI Airport here, which led the green panel to order an inspection of his South Delhi house.

Lt. Gen. Satwant Singh Dahiya (Retd) has sought criminal proceedings against commercial airlines and levy of hefty fines on them for endangering the health of residents, terming the act as violation of the Swachchh Bharat Abhiyan.

Noting the submissions of the petitioner, the green panel directed the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) to depute a senior environmental engineer to inspect his house and check the existence of human excreta on the walls.

It also asked the CPCB that if excreta was found, samples should be collected for analysis and the report placed before the tribunal.

A bench headed by NGT chairperson Justice Swatanter Kumar also issued notices to the ministries of environment and forests and civil aviation and the CPCB, seeking their replies within two weeks.

Plane toilets store human waste in special tanks. These are normally disposed of by ground crew once the plane lands, but aviation officials acknowledge that lavatory leaks can occur in the air at times. There have been instances, including in India, when people have been injured.

In his petition, Vasant Enclave resident Dahiya has sought creation of a 24-hour helpline for immediate reporting of the incident and a monitoring mechanism to check that no aircraft drops “human soil or excreta” while landing.

“For past more than the week in the early morning, we found that walls and floors of terrace of our house splattered with large patches of excreta dumped by aircraft flying in front of Palam airport at night. This is the second time this has happened. Last time it had occurred in early October when we had spent Rs 50,000 to get the entire exterior resurfaced with fresh paint.