Irregular garbage collection leads to proliferation of black spots in Bengaluru

Persistent irregular garbage collection and daily delays in the arrival of dumpers have aggravated Bengaluru city’s black spot problem, which has now been compounded by the onset of monsoon, leaving residents suffering.

Black spots that were removed earlier are visibly reappearing and causing public ire. In addition, new black spots have appeared in several residential areas, making it difficult for people to walk on the streets. NammaKasa, which tracks blackspots in the city, reported 5,445 active blackspots on Sunday (June 7); just a month earlier it was 3,200.

Irregular collection

In several parts of the city, waste collection has been irregular for months. Karunakar Bhat, a resident of Marathahalli, said that for the past two to three months, dumpers have been coming to collect garbage only two or three times a week, leading to pile-up of garbage in households. “Not everyone will dispose of waste on the streets and wait for dumpers; the authorities should understand that. Wet waste in particular is a concern. The mosquito problem is increasing due to this,” Mr Bhat said.

The problem is not isolated to East Bengaluru but has become common across the city, especially in the outer zones, according to residents who spoke to The Hindu. In many areas, garbage collectors collect waste every other day, or in many cases only a few times a week. They also often do not collect sanitary waste separately.

Drains

Clement Jayakumar, a member of the civic group Mahadevapura Task Force, pointed out that the main problem is the accumulation of garbage near storm water drains and lake edges. “Heaps of garbage are reaching the drains, which has now led to flooding in several areas. Some drains have been cleaned, but now they are all blocked again, leading to increased flooding; even lakes are not spared,” he added.

Mrinalini, a resident of Sarakki, said that the stretch near the Banashankari temple has been notorious for black spots on garbage for many years, but the situation remains unchanged. The authorities are not taking action against those responsible, nor are they permanently clearing the site, she added.

Timing problem

Madhav P., a resident of Koramangala, said he dumps waste on the streets because the collection timings do not suit his schedule and his landlord does not allow him to keep a dustbin at the gate for collection when the dump trucks arrive. “I leave home by 8.30am and get back by 7.30pm and I rarely see a waste collection before 8am, most days I order food and all those parcels just sit at home for days and sometimes a week,” he said. “Because I can’t get rid of them in the morning and I have so many packages left, I end up getting rid of them at night,” he added.

Civic activist V. Ramprasad explained that such cases occur because the authorities do not have a route optimization plan or a micro plan. “The plan they have is over a decade old and no effort has been made to do another study,” he said. Both of these plans help manage waste collection more effectively at the micro level. Mr. Ramprasad, a resident of Thindl, said that timing problems and irregular garbage collection persist across the city and that north Bengaluru is no exception.

Keeping these gaps in mind, Bengaluru Solid Waste Management Limited launched an initiative called ‘Kiosks Kasa’ where people who missed the collection vehicles could dispose of their waste. One such unit was opened in Adugodi but remained closed when Hindus visited several times. The expansion of such kiosks was also not addressed.

To address the timing issues, the civic authorities also planned to mandate the installation of large dustbins on the ground floor of all buildings with more than two floors. However, these plans, like several others announced in the past, remained only on paper.

(This is the first in a four-part series on Bengaluru’s deepening garbage crisis.)

Published – 07 June 2026 19:40 IST