Garbage mafia may be behind 18-story landfill fire

'You wake up with a cough, Your eyes are burning and swelling. It's like the fog you might see in the mountains, but it's hurting us.'

The people of Mumbai are currently suffering the effects of smoke inhalation after an 18-story-high trash-filled landfill burst into flames.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) -  India's garbage crisis required 100 firemen, twelve fire engines and 8 tankers to control, Chief Fire Officer P.S. Ranghdale reported.

Though the flames are under control, the fire is in no way extinguished. The origins of the fire continue to be investigated within the 80-year-old landfill, called the Deonar landfill, which is believed to contain nearly 16 millions tons of garbage.

The garbage thrown into the landfill is not regulated, leaving thousands of dollars' worth of scrap metal, plastics and glass.

So much money is abandoned in the dump that garbage mafia gangs have sprung up, each claiming territory and deploying scavengers to collect valuables such as cheap jewelry, recyclables and scrap metal.

Ajith Nair, a resident and Deonar advocate told the LA Times: "I think India is the only country in the world where you need to protect a garbage dump to keep people from going in. But the garbage mafia is very well known and powerful. There is a huge supply chain around scrap. The people who suffer are the pickers, who have to go in with their bare hands."

The garbage mafia is not only known for forcing their scavengers to enter the dump without protection, but they are also responsible for setting fires in each other's territory.

The fires spread similarly to brush fires, with plumes of smoke descending upon the city and poisoning its citizens.

"You wake up with a cough, Your [sic] eyes are burning and swelling, Tasneemun Nisar Khan, a local resident explained. She added, "It's like the fog you might see in the mountains, but it's hurting us."

The most recent fire is not as serious as the one Denoar suffered in January, which was so severe that NASA could see the smoke from space.

The garbage crisis has only grown worse as India's population continues to boom, leading Prime Minister Narendra Modi to call for "smart cities," which would focus on recycling and create health-conscious citizens.

"The need was recognized very well in the 1990s, and it was clear that we could not continue business as usual, which was just picking up garbage and dumping it," environmental activist Rishi Aggrawal stated. "This is the need of the hour in India, and it's really unfortunate that even though it's something so simple, we have not been able to do it."

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