63% success of liquor bottle buyback scheme in the Nilgiris gladdens Madras High Court

Tasmac says 18.50 lakh out of 29.31 lakh bottles had been returned in the Nilgiris district in one month

A special Division Bench of Justices N. Sathish Kumar and D. Bharatha Chakravarthy, constituted to hear forest related cases, directed Tasmac Managing Director L. Subramaniam to list by July 15 the modalities to be followed for implementing the bottle buyback scheme followed in the Nilgiris across Tamil Nadu.

Earlier, Additional Advocate General J. Ravindran told the Bench that 29.31 lakh liquor bottles were sold in the Nilgiris district between May 15 (when the empty bottle buyback scheme was introduced at court’s instance) and June 14 this year and that 18.50 lakh bottles had got returned during the same period.

Providing a break-up, he said that 12.63 lakh bottles were returned at the 76 retail liquor vending shops in the district, in order to take back ₹10 that was charged more than the Maximum Retail Price while selling the bottles, and that 5.86 lakh bottles were collected from the bars attached to those liquor retail vending shops.

The AAG also said that Tasmac had planned to invite tenders from those interested in purchasing the empty bottles and that it would be finalised very soon. The court had insisted upon the buyback scheme to prevent littering of the glass bottles in forest areas leading to severe injuries to animals, especially the elephants.

However, elated with the good response to it, the judges said that the scheme could be extended across the State to prevent littering of liquor bottles in agricultural fields, government school campuses and such other places. They said that the success rate of the scheme would increase if more awareness was created among the people.

Justice Chakravarthy said the rag pickers and sanitary workers would also be spared of the threat of suffering bleeding injuries while picking the broken liquor bottles from garbage bins and dump yards if Tasmac itself devises a scheme through which all the empty bottles could get returned and recycled safely.

Earlier, the court was informed that the scheme had been implemented in other hill stations and as well as in places around national parks and wildlife sanctuaries from June 15. The judges wanted to know by the next hearing as to whether there were no liquor shops in certain sanctuaries which had been left out in Tirunelveli and Theni districts.