Swimmer volunteers help Ganesha immersion in Kolhapur

Close to 150 swimming volunteers from the Panchganga Vihar Mandal in Kolhapur ensured a traditional Ganesh immersion in the flooded Panchganga river in Kolhapur on Tuesday. The volunteers, all regular swimmers in the river, used floats for carrying the idols up to the main stream of the river.

The river having the warning level at 39 feet was flowing at 40.8 feet height. Hence, the immersion had become almost impossible in the river. The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation (KMC) had arranged four big drums near the river for immersing the Ganesh idols and had cautioned the citizens against entering the river.

The activists made floats from two drums for carrying the Ganesh idols for immersing them in the river’s main stream. Two ropes were tied in such way that one end was tied to a pole near the main stream and the other end outside the river’s water. “At one time, we immersed at least 50 idols. This service was for free,’’ Shiv Swami, one of the volunteer swimmers told DNA.

“We are regular swimmers in the river. Hence, we understand the water currents. Besides, our best swimmers controlled the floats,’’ Swami said.

Many Kolhapurites used the floods in the river as an opportunity to try out the many immersion drums provided by the KMC by the riverside. However, at the Rankala Lake, there was no immersion in the lake’s water body and the people used the small artificial pond outside the lake body for the immersion.

KMC city engineer Netradeep Sarnobat told DNA that the immersion process was smooth despite the floods. At Koteetirtha and the Rajaram Lakes, the immersion was done in the lake bodies and in the drums. The nirmalya however was compulsorily collected outside the water bodies.