kodungaiyur is one of the two dump yards where the Corporation of chennai dumps nearly 3,200 tonnes of garbage every day. The 400-acre spread in Kodungaiyur is its biggest facility.

seldom do the urban elites who thrash joyfully are aware of the huge damage they are causing to air and ground water to several tens of thousands of people who live near this toxic dump. the community environment monitors (cem) study shows dangerous toxic levels near the dump.

latest air samples from the dump was taken couple of days back to be sent to america for further testing to determine the toxicity levels.

this dump affects and screws up directly the health of 5000 rag pickers and nearly 2 lakh residents who breathe this toxic air. from the above hindu report,
Dharmesh Shah, a member of the CEM, said that with 5,000 people dependent on picking garbage and recycling them to earn a living, a viable solution was needed to solve the problem of pollution affecting two lakh residents around the dump.

as india rushes to be the next america, it has convienently forgotten that in america environmental controls are so strict that you cannot be having kodungaiyur near san francisco city or near tampa bay and even if it is located several tens of miles farther, strict monitoring, input correction, air sampling, etc is done to make sure the dump is a controlled facility.

as india's urban elite fancy themselves to make india compete with america, they seldom are aware that their thrash culture will first thrash their own backyards -and make breathing fresh air a dream- before we can stand up to be the 'next america' (toxic haze from kodungaiyur dump in chennai. picture copyright hindu)