Scenic marble waste site in Rajasthan draws visitors, experts flag health hazard

Kishangarh: Endless white plains glowing under the sun, no pine trees, no chill in the air, yet the scenery looks straight out of a winter postcard. Many confuse it for Bolivia’s Salt Flats, snow-clad Gulmarg or even scenic Switzerland.

This picturesque location, which has become a popular reel destination, is Asia’s largest marble waste dumping yard in Kishangarh in Ajmer district of arid Rajasthan.

The dumping site, where over 700 tankers carrying around 22 lakh litres of marble slurry are emptied every day, attracts at least 5,000 visitors on a daily basis, with the footfall going up to 20,000 on weekends and holidays.

Due to its pristine white appearance, the dumping yard, spread over 350 acres, has also become a popular destination for pre-wedding and commercial shoots. Environmentalists and health experts, however, have flagged it as not just a health hazard but also a pollution hotspot.

Scientific studies conducted by the Central University of Rajasthan have flagged it as a “toxic tourist destination”, documenting the health and ecological impacts of this unregulated dumping. The concerns also reached the National Green Tribunal (NGT), which set up a joint committee including members from state and central pollution control boards.

“Despite its scale and impact, the dumping yard is being operated in rampant violation of basic environmental safeguards. There is no engineered liner system, no decanting wells, no dust suppression mechanisms, no monitoring of air or groundwater, and no protective green belt.

“These failures have led to severe contamination of groundwater, degradation of agricultural land and high levels of fugitive dust pollution, thereby endangering public health,” Laxmi Kant Sharma, Environmental Science professor at Central University of Rajasthan, told news agency.

Sharma noted that the university’s studies have found that the toxic contamination of water sources in the vicinity is reflected in total dissolved solid escalating 10 times above the safe limit in a 6-km radius of the dumping site.

“The concentration of lead silicate in soil and nitrate and fluoride concentrations in water were found several times higher than normal levels, indicating extreme contamination. Our study also found that the concentration of PM2.5 exceeds the limit of ambient air quality standards of PM2.5,” he said.

“Since the waste particles are smaller than 75 micrometres, they can spread far and wide, making the soil infertile. Several people may be suffering from silicosis. The government needs to take immediate action to prevent the situation from getting out of hand,” he added.

The Kishangarh marble industry was established in the 1980s. Some 30 years ago, the Rajasthan State Industrial Development and Investment Corporation (RIICO) allotted two dumping plots to the Kishangarh Marble Association (KMA). And that is when the first marble waste was dumped here and the slurry accumulated to the extent that it formed white plateaus and mountains.

Today, there are over 1,200 marble cutting units in the city.

For years, nobody paid attention. The location shot into the limelight after comedian Kapil Sharma shot a song here for his debut film “Kis Kisko Pyaar Karoon” in 2016.