Residents of Moshi, Chikhali and Dudulgaon have announced a protest outside the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation’s garbage depot in Moshi on November 5, demanding that the facility be closed or that waste processing be decentralised across the civic body’s regional offices.
The decision was taken at a meeting of villagers and housing society members at Shri Nageshwar Maharaj temple in Moshi on Thursday, according to a report by Punekar News. Residents said they were responding to mounting concerns over the health, environmental and economic effects of the landfill, which they claim receives waste from across the city.
The residents alleged that the concentration of garbage in Moshi has affected the area’s development and public image. They claimed that methane emissions from the depot had increased respiratory and skin ailments, while foul odour had spread across a radius of about five kilometres. These health and pollution claims were made by residents at the meeting and were reported by the source; the supplied report does not include an independent assessment or a response from the municipal corporation.
Residents also alleged that hazardous slurry from the garbage depot was being discharged directly into the Indrayani river. They said the alleged discharge had worsened water pollution and affected animals in the area. The claim places the waste facility within a wider environmental concern for communities located along the river and near the municipal dumping and processing infrastructure.
The dispute is also tied to the area’s housing and local economy. Residents said the increasing volume of waste, pollution and persistent odour had made Moshi less attractive to prospective homebuyers. They further claimed that construction businesses and the area’s broader economic and infrastructure development were being affected by the depot’s presence.
The demand for decentralisation reflects a dispute over how a rapidly urbanising civic region distributes the costs of waste management. Moshi, Chikhali and Dudulgaon contain established settlements and expanding housing development, while the garbage depot continues to serve as a major destination for municipal waste, according to the residents’ account. The proposed alternative would involve distributing waste handling across PCMC’s regional offices rather than concentrating the burden in one locality.
Thousands of residents, traders and representatives of local organisations from Moshi, Chikhali and Dudulgaon are expected to join the November 5 protest. The gathering is intended to put pressure on PCMC to address the residents’ demands over the depot’s future, alleged pollution and the distribution of waste-management facilities. The supplied report does not specify whether the civic body has announced any action before the protest.
