MCD Plans 200-Tonne Cattle Waste Processing Plant at Rohini's Indira Camp
An estimated 1,300 tonnes of unprocessed cattle waste enters drains across Delhi and flows into the Yamuna every day, according to a report by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) presented last week during deliberations chaired by the Union home secretary. To combat the severe pollution burden on the river, the civic body is planning new processing plants across the capital, including a 200-tonne-per-day facility at Indira camp Sector 3 in Rohini.
The MCD data, compiled as part of a Yamuna clean-up exercise overseen by a Union home ministry committee, shows that cattle in Delhi generate a total of 1,500 tonnes of dung daily across authorised and unauthorised dairies as well as cow shelters. Currently, only 200 tonnes of this waste is processed each day at a compressed biogas plant in southwest Delhi's Nangli dairy, which remains the city's only operational facility.
The remaining 1,300 tonnes of unprocessed cattle waste is estimated to enter city drains and ultimately reach the Yamuna. A senior government official stated that the discharge of cattle dung has emerged as a significant source of organic pollution in the river, increasing organic load and contributing to the depletion of dissolved oxygen in the river's already stressed ecosystem.
To address the issue and prevent waste from entering the river, the MCD signed a Memorandum of Understanding on July 15 this year with the National Dairy Development Board to establish processing plants across Delhi. Under the plan, new facilities will include 200-tonne-per-day plants at Ghogha dairy, Goyla dairy, and Indira camp Sector 3 in Rohini, alongside a 300-tonne-per-day facility at Ghazipur dairy and a 125-tonne-per-day plant at Bhalswa dairy.
Additional planned units include a 75-tonne-per-day plant at Masoodpur dairy, a 50-tonne-per-day unit at Sri Ram Colony in Khajoori, a 100-tonne-per-day facility at Sarita Vihar, and a 200-tonne-per-day plant in Indira Park in Sagarpur.
Five of these new facilities are expected to be completed by June 2027. Construction at the Goyla dairy and Ghogha dairy plants is currently reported to be 72 percent and 70 percent complete, respectively. Once all proposed plants are operational, Delhi's total processing capacity will rise to 1,625 tonnes per day, exceeding the current daily dung generation.
According to the MCD enumeration, there are 123,164 cattle housed in legal dairies and shelters in Delhi, including 82,750 in legal dairy colonies, 19,638 in government animal shelters, and 20,776 in private gaushalas. The civic body separately estimates that around 500 unauthorised dairies operate across the city.
