Ooty: With garbage overflowing in the municipality garbage dump yard at Theetukal and posing a threat to the health of wild animals around, Green activists want speedy action to maintain the environs.
Wild animals, including sambar deer and wild boars have begun to sneak into the garbage dump yard at Theetukal near here from the nearby jungles to eat vegetables and other wastes dumped there.
Stating that urgent efforts are need to keep the area fenced to check the entry of wild animals into the dump yard, Mr.Corfiled, a retired forest range officer and an ecologist, said that residents in Theetukal complained that all the waste collected from Ooty municipality, including dead animals and vegetable wastes dumped at the yard in Theetukal. This was forest land handed over to the municipality.
"Garbage and other food wastes that contain residues of chemicals, dyes and preservatives, will enter the food chain of the herbivorous wild animals that visit the garbage yard. These residues will, in turn enter the food chain of big cats like the tiger, when they prey upon animals like the deer, gaur and wild boar which feed on the garbage wastes. This will ultimately affect the health of the big cats," he noted.
"Vegetable wastes can be composted in houses. The problem of garbage all over the Nilgiris, even in remote villages is alarming," he added.
