Kohima: Garbage is swallowing the roadside near the Government Primary School in Padumpukhuri village. The mess stretches nearly 30 metres. It contains plastic bags, wet waste, and old clothes. The pile sits directly beneath a wall featuring a 'No Littering' notice from the Padumpukhuri Village Council. The council warned that illegal dumping draws a 5,000 rupee fine. Yet, the trash grows daily. Residents report that vehicles stop under the cover of darkness to ditch more waste.
Waste now spills onto the road. Traffic grinds through the refuse. The pile breeds mosquitoes and risks polluting local water sources. Aheto V Yepthomi, the council chairman, says this is part of a village-wide disaster. The Dimapur Municipal Council closed their dumping zone in March because it reached capacity. The village stopped all collection services on May 1, 2026. The council advised households to compost or store trash on their own property.
Enforcement remains a ghost. The chairman noted, "Tracking down individual defaulters has been futile, because it has been difficult to ascertain exactly when the garbage is being dumped." The council lacks the funds and manpower to police every corner. They hope to reach an agreement with a neighboring town council to handle the waste once a new site is found.
Hope rests on a state project in Niuland. The Nagaland government plans to acquire 50 acres at Xukiye village for an Integrated Zonal Waste Processing Centre. This facility should open within eight months. It will eventually serve the Dimapur, East Dimapur, Chümoukedima, and Niuland town councils. Until then, the village rots.
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