Planes Pooping In South Delhi Homes From Sky? Top Green Court To Check

New Delhi: As planes fly above his neighbourhood in South Delhi, they empty human waste, a former army officer has alleged. The country's top environmental court has ordered an inspection to determine if he's right (here's hoping he's not).

Lt Gen (Retd) Satwant Singh Dahiya has asked for criminal proceedings and fines against commercial airlines for endangering the health of the residents of his neighbourhood.

The National Green Tribunal or NGT has asked for a senior environmental engineer to visit the former army man's home and see if human refuse is splattered, as he alleges, on the walls outside.

If it is, samples must be collected, analysed and then explained to the court, it has ordered.

The Aviation and Environment Ministries have also been asked to respond within two weeks to the complaint.

Plane toilets store human waste in special tanks. These are normally disposed of by ground crew once the plane lands, but aviation officials acknowledge that lavatory leaks can occur in the air at times.

For over a week, he says, "in the early morning, we found that walls and floors of terrace of our house splattered with large patches of excreta dumped by aircraft flying in front of Palam airport at night."

The retired officer said he confronted the same problem at the same time last year and had been forced to clean and repaint his house at a cost of Rs 50,000. The house was touched up for Diwali, he has told the court, and he cannot afford new nasty stains. 

"We are retired people and cannot afford to have this defacement everyday," his appeal said.