Chennai: In a major crackdown on illegal bio-medical waste dumping, Tamil Nadu Governor R.N. Ravi has approved an amendment to the Goondas Act, 1982, enabling authorities to detain offenders under its stringent provisions.
The amendment, passed by the state assembly in April 2025, responds to repeated incidents of bio-medical waste being dumped in Tamil Nadu border districts by institutions from neighbouring Kerala. Now, violators of the Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, 2016 — punishable under the Environment Protection Act — can be detained as “bio-medical waste offenders” under the Goondas Act.
The move follows alarming cases such as the December 2024 dumping of medical waste from Thiruvananthapuram’s Regional Cancer Centre in Tirunelveli’s villages, prompting intervention from the National Green Tribunal. Despite repeated warnings, the illegal activity continued, prompting the Tamil Nadu government to opt for harsher legal deterrents.
Officials hope the amendment will curb the growing environmental and public health hazard posed by unsafe biomedical waste disposal.
