Another question is who pays for the incineration, a costly process? The court is trying to recover money from those who imported this waste. The Government of India will have to spend Rs 2.86 crore for the entire cargo. It has since managed to recover Rs 1.2 crore from 10 importers for the 133 containers. The remaining five importers are facing contempt of court charges.

In case of one party, the Eleven Star Esscon, where Customs seized the consignment, it was Customs which had to pay almost Rs 27 lakh for the incineration. This money is yet to be recovered.

The delay has another serious fall-out. According to law, these consignments have to be re-exported, if permissible, or destroyed. In India, the Customs department takes notice of a consignment only if it remains “unclaimed” for 45 days. Even after that, it has to hand out notices before it can check the cargo. So the delay in taking a decision meant that the option of sending it back to the importing country was closed. For, according to Basel Convention, it has to be done within 30 days. It was then left to the Supreme Court to order the incineration.

(Tomorrow: Why it takes 5 years to begin clean-up?)