Use of artificial water pools as an environment-friendly way to immerse Ganesha idols has recently received the approval of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).
Use of artificial water pools as an environment-friendly way to immerse Ganesha idols has recently received the approval of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). The civic body has notified a dozen such pools in the city.
However, since 2004, a group of citizens in Chembur has prevented hundreds of idols from degrading water bodies by promoting the concept of artificial pools. The Pestom Sagar Citizens Forum (PSCF), an association of residents of over a hundred buildings, has created four small pools in a local garden to immerse the idols. The facility created by PSCF was listed as one of the ‘eco-friendly’ immersion sites by the BMC.
Till Sunday, over 50 idols have already been immersed in the pools fashioned out of discarded plastic water tanks. Ramesh Sharma, a resident of Tilak Nagar, immersed his papier mache idol in one of the tanks on Sunday afternoon. Earlier, he used to take his idols to a natural pond near Basant theatre in Chembur. “One of my friends told me about this facility and I found the idea appealing. When
he promoted the festival, Bal Gangadhar Tilak had said that the idols should not be immersed in water. He would not have liked the destruction we are causing to natural water bodies by filling them up with plaster,” said Sharma.
Members of PSCF are expecting hundreds of idols during the festival. Once the festival is over, they plan to dredge the plaster-of-Paris remains from the bottom of the tanks and dispose the material at a quarry. The sludge left from the clay and papier mache idols will be recycled in the garden. Apart from the idols, the association also collects floral and other organic decorations from Ganesha pandals for conversion into garden compost.
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