North Indian Village Residents Mistake Human Waste For A Meteor

Residents of a north Indian village were in for a shock when a rock that fell out of the sky, which they believed was a meteor, Saturday turned out to human waste a plane jettisoned while flying over the area.

The feces was discarded in Fazilpur Badli village, situated in the city of Gurgaon in the state of Haryana, the Indian Express, a daily Indian newspaper, reported. When the human waste landed on the ground, the residents mistook it for a meteor and said it had come “shooting out of the sky.” A team of scientists went to the scene, only to confirm it was human waste, the report stated.

Balwan, who owned the piece of land where the "rock" landed, described it as a “flying object” and said he heard it landing on his land approximately around 8 a.m. IST (9:30 p.m. EST, Friday).

“It came out of the sky, sounding exactly like an airplane. Before I could ascertain what it was, it landed in my field,” said Balwan.

The report further said, as a crowd gathered around the scene, Balwan informed Govind Singh, the village head, who in turn notified the Farrukhnagar police station.

Singh said, “I rushed to the spot and saw the object… It seemed to weigh at least 8 or 10 kg, judging by the dent it had made in the ground.”

“Initially, we thought it could be ice but it was not melting. So we figured it must have some kind of chemical in it… We were uncertain if it was safe to touch, so I called up the SHO at Farrukhnagar police station, who arrived at the spot with his team,” he added.

Station House Office (SHO) of Farrukhnagar police station, Karan Singh said, “I received a call at 9 a.m IST (10:30 p.m EST, Friday) from the sarpanch, who told me that some ‘ice’ seemed to have landed in the fields.”

“It looked like ice even to me, but I alerted higher officials, and called in the crime team and a senior medical officer’s team to the spot for investigation,” added Karan.

Scientists from the India Meteorological Department (IMD) came to inspect the scene while the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) was also informed about the incident.

Vivek Kalia, estate officer of the Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA), said, “The unidentified object crashed with a thud early this morning. ... The IMD sent a team of scientists to collect samples, and we also informed the NDMA.”

Upon confirmation by the scientists that the “flying object” was human excreta, Kalia confirmed the same, “The object has been identified as human excreta dumped by an aircraft.”

The incident took place 10 days after the National Green Tribunal (NGT) – a government body that handles issues related to proper disposal of cases pertaining to environment issues – ordered the Directorate General of Civil Aviation to issue circulars to all airlines, stressing that flights which dumped human waste and emptied toilets while flying would have to pay a fine of 50,000 Rupees ($783).