Toxics Link, based in New Delhi, said in a report that most electronic waste (e-waste) is imported into India.

"In a single month, there was a reported case of 30 metric tonnes of e-waste at Ahmedabad port in (western) India," the report said.

Although the Indian government has prohibited the importing of used computers, they land as "donations" or "charity" and "there is no specific check to monitor (its) entry," the report said.

People scavenge whatever working parts they can from the computers and then break down what is left in search of precious metals -- including gold -- and glass. The rest, mostly plastic, ends up on India's scrapheaps, the report said.

Toxics Link accused foreign companies of helping Indian importers bypass government regulations to bring in the goods for recycling.

India itself is becoming a source of e-waste, with the electronics production business emerging as one of the the fastest growing segments of Indian industry.

India today has about 1.38 million obsolete computers with manufacturers adding approximately 1,050 tonnes of electronic scrap a year, the report said.

The number is small compared to the 20 million obsolete computers in the United States, but represented "a growing trend" in India. The problem is compounded by junk imported from countries such as the US, Singapore and Korea.

The primitive methods used to recycle e-waste are "very harmful to human health" as well as the environment, the report said.

Computer parts -- including monitors, printers, keyboards, central processing units (CPUs), motherboards, floppy drives -- contain precious metals such as gold, silver and platinum as well as hazardous substances such as lead, cadmium and mercury.

"About 70 percent of the heavy metals found in landfills comes from e-waste," the report said.

The recycling of e-waste was a thriving business due to the huge profits involved, it added.

"There is no way to compute the volume of business because it happens behind closed doors," said Ravi Agarwal, who heads up Toxics Link. "In any given year it can be a substantial amount."

Units dismantling computers are mainly makeshift with employees working at night to prevent officials from finding them, the report said.

The units also frequently shift their locations to prevent detection which hampers government action, the report said, a fact acknowledged by the federal government.

Both industry and the environment ministry acknowledged the report by Toxics Link was an "eye-opener."

An environment ministry official said much e-waste was toxic and "likely to create serious problems for the environment and human health if not handled properly."

A report by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) said officials surveyed about 10 areas in New Delhi where e-waste was being handled.

But "absolutely no trading/reprocessing of imported e-waste was observed," the government report said.

The Manufacturers Association for Information Technology (MAIT), representing information technology hardware-makers, said e-waste was the problem of developed countries.

"I think concern about e-waste is premature but it is a point well made that we could get to that stage," said Vinnie Mehta, who heads MAIT.

"People use and throw computers (away) in the US, where proliferation is huge but in India where the personal computer penetration is nine per 1,000, this is not a problem," Mehta said.

"In India, the computer I discard today is picked up someone in a smaller town. The personal computer market here is just about two million units in a country of a population of more than a billion.

"But India and China could be potential grounds for dumping," he said.