Kasaragod: Three people have been booked for allegedly dumping nearly 20 bags of human excreta in a roadside stormwater drain in Anangoor, a residential neighbourhood in the heart of Kasaragod town.

The sewage was dumped around 11 pm on Wednesday during a power cut, near Kappivala Road. Residents discovered it the following morning after a foul smell began spreading through the area. “The smell was unbearable. Even today, when I think about the smell, I feel sick,” said Sharada B, Kasaragod Municipal councillor from Nullippadi division.

The drain was found filled with black garbage bags and a drum containing human excreta. Angry residents decided to track down those responsible rather than simply report the incident to the authorities.

Udayan Kadakam, a theatre artist and resident of the street, said the CCTV camera at his house captured a small pickup vehicle passing by at 11.04 pm with three drums and garbage bags in the back. When the vehicle returned at 11.14 pm, the back was empty. A man with his face covered was seen escorting the pickup on a motorcycle.

The vehicle’s registration number was not visible in the footage from Udayan’s house. “But we got the time stamp. So we checked the footage from Highway Castle hotel on the highway. The cameras facing the road clearly captured the vehicle, its registration number and the people travelling in it,” Udayan said.

Using the registration number, the residents tracked down the men, who turned out to be from the same Nullippadi division of Kasaragod municipality. “We asked them to come and clean the drain. But they turned up late Thursday night,” Udayan said.

Sharada identified the three men as Aravind, Satheesh and Vijayan. They are residents of the same Nullippadi division and are engaged in cleaning septic tanks and toilets at commercial establishments, she said.

The residents were livid and made the three men remove the sewage from the drain with their bare hands. “By then, the police had arrived. Otherwise, things would have escalated,” Sharada said.

The men reportedly told residents that the sewage had been collected from a hospital in Kasaragod town. The municipality plans to confirm the source of the waste on Saturday as Friday was a holiday, said the councillor. The municipality also plans to take strict action against those responsible for dumping sewage in the open, Sharada said.

Septic-tank waste is normally removed using suction equipment and transported in a tanker. Instead, the men allegedly brought the waste in garbage bags and drums. “There is a designated place in Manjeshwar, around 30km away, to dump sewage waste,” Udayan said.
One of the drums apparently fell into the stormwater drain while the men were unloading it and was left behind. The other two drums were emptied into the drain, residents said.

The drain is meant to carry rainwater and joins a larger stream a little further downstream, where water flows throughout the year, said Udayan. Based on a complaint from a resident, Kasaragod Town Police booked the three men, she said.