IAF officials are alarmed as BBMP landfill is dangerously close to Air Force Station Yelahanka (AFSY).
India may be expecting its biggest air show ever put up through the eighth edition of Aero India 2011 at Air Force Station Yelahanka (AFSY) from February 9 to 13, 2011 with several countries participating with their hi-tech fighter aircraft. But a massive landfill with mountains of garbage dangerously close by threatens to spoil the fun.
DNA’s visits to Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s (BBMP’s) Mavallipura landfill reveal that it is located barely five km from AFSY, and daily attracts hundreds of scavenger birds flying about. These pose a real and grave danger to aircraft performing aerobatics during the big show.
Ace fighter pilots vouch that even a stray bird hitting a high-speed aircraft while performing aerobatics could spell doom. IAF’s pleas—the last one was in January this year—to BBMP to ensure birds do not fly around AFSY have till date fallen on deaf ears even as India’s biggest air show is barely three months away.
The recently enacted Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules lay down that such landfills should be located at least 20 km from any airport perimeter, while the older Airports Act restricts setting up landfills within 10km of existing airports—mainly to prevent birds seeking food from the garbage colliding with flying aircraft.
However, the Mavallipura landfill—named as Ramky Landfill as it is given on contract to Ramky Energy & Environment Limited—violates both the older act as well as the newer Municipal Solid Waste Management Rules.
Four years ago, BBMP acquired the present 40-acre land of grazing pastures abutting the forests and set up what they have claimed to be a scientific landfill outsourced to Ramky on a 30-year lease. Ramesh Satyam, project manager (municipal solid waste operations) told DNA that it could have been managed better had it been as big as the initially planned 100-acre land. But IAF officials say it is not the size of the landfill which is worrying them as much as the proximity to the location where India’s biggest air show is to take place in February.
Aero India 2011 has been touted to be the biggest air show ever organised by India to provide a significant platform in bolstering business opportunities in international aviation sector.
IAF officials have so far been extremely careful to prevent bird-hits which threaten the lives of pilots or damage to the aircraft during breath-taking aerobatics displays.
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