The National Green Tribunal on Monday directed the Bengal government to submit a status report on Covid medical waste management, said environment activist Subhas Datta, the petitioner in the case.

The bench of Justice S.P. Wangdi and expert member Saibal Dasgupta also directed the state pollution control board to submit the report of an expert committee set up by the board to suggest ways to manage Covid waste.

“We have asked the department concerned to prepare the report,” said a lawyer representing the state. An official of the pollution control board said they would hand over the report of the expert committee to the tribunal, as told.

Covid waste, which can contain traces of the coronavirus, is at times disposed of indiscriminately by patients quarantined at home or their families, posing a risk to public health, warned public health experts.

“Pavement dwellers often come in contact with such waste,” said Arunava Majumder, a scientist who has retired from the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health.