Legal action against those dumping waste near airport

Garbage will attract birds, increasing bird hit threat to aircraft

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) has decided to initiate legal action against those dumping waste in the localities around the Thiruvananthapuram international airport. The authority is also planning to organise awareness campaigns and place advertisements to sensitise people to the bird hit threat to aircraft.

FIRs will be registered against those dumping garbage. The issue figured in the Airfield Environment Management Committee (AEMC) that met recently under the chairmanship of Transport Principal Secretary Tom Jose.

Rule 91 of the Indian Aircraft Act 1934 bans slaughtering and sale of fish and meat in the open and similar activities, which are likely to attract vultures or birds, in a 10-km radius of airports. A slew of measures by the AAI had helped bring down the number of bird hits from six in 2011-12 to four in 2012-13.

Although no bird hit has been reported in the current financial year, Airport Director V.N. Chandran, who is the convenor of the AEMC, said garbage dumps and slaughtering and sale of fish and meat in the open in the buffer zone of the airport were a threat to the aircraft.

The AAI had recently constructed and handed over a covered fish market at Perinelli, near the approach path of the international airport.

The garbage piles attract stray dogs to the localities, and the issue was raised by the airline representatives at the meeting. The AEMC was of the view that the local body should take steps to check the stray dog menace by sterilising and rehabilitating the dogs.

The AAI has also taken a serious view of the unauthorised constructions along the boundary wall of the airport that has been classified as sensitive. The AAI has filed an FIR with the police against the hutments adjoining the airport boundary wall on the eastern side.

Cleaning the Parvathy Puthanar to make it navigable to commence boat services to Kovalam and shifting of the Ponnara bridge also came up before the AEMC. The Irrigation Department and district administration had been asked to file action taken reports.