Idols of deities will no more be made out of plaster of Paris (PoP), the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay high court has ruled. In a landmark verdict on Tuesday, the bench imposed a permanent ban on use of the material in idols, spreading cheer among environmentalists.

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 The bench said henceforth all idols must be made using soil, paper, natural colours and other environment-friendly material. Any violation of it would invite criminal cases, it added.

Environmentalists have for long been crying hoarse over pollution of water bodies due to immersion of PoP idols.

The judgment came on a public interest petition (PIL) filed by Narendra Dabholkar, president of the Maharashtra Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti, in 2005. It came up for hearing after six years. The environment ministry of the Union government, the central pollution board and Maharashtra Pollution Control Board had already submitted their guidelines on pollution before the court.

In his PIL, Dabholkar had submitted that the use of plaster of Paris and chemical-laced colours were polluting wells, rivers and even sea water on a large scale. Calcium sulphate hemihyderate mixed in a nominal quantity with water to be used in idols is dangerous to the environment as the chemical did not heal in water easily.

Despite strong opposition from green activists it has been hard to do away with use of PoP. The protest against it had little support from other stake-holders. Former mayor Shubha Raul had taken up the issue in a big way but was let down by her own party activists.

She welcomed the high court order and said it was high time such an order should be passed.

“It is a good decision. But I do not understand why such decisions come after something goes wrong to a big extent. Goa has already banned all kinds of Visarjans. If not an absolute ban, we should at least try to stop pollution. Ideally, even the soil is not suitable for marine life. But since Visarjan is a tradition, we can carry on with the artificial lakes and soil idols. It is about time we take this seriously,” she said.

Another green activist said one needed to understand why the PoP came into picture in the first place.

“The PoP came with a concept of better finish or look. That was the prime reason it was introduced. Religiosity has nothing to do with it,’’ he said.

Ganesha is an environment-friendly deity. He is connected to nature as many of his offerings are connected to it, he added. “If you have faith in Ganesha and Nature then you cannot have idols that spoil it. People should start respect that and obey the court order,” said Avinash Kubal, deputy director, Maharashtra Nature Park.

When contacted, Naresh Dahibhaukar, president of Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti, said, “We are yet to know about the exact court order. But I would say things have come to this pass because the state government has been sleeping over the issue. We had met Sachinbhau Ahir, who had promised that he will appoint a committee within one month to look into the alternate issues of the idol making.

However, its been five to six months and we have not heard anything on it. We will obey the order but we will also approach the Supreme Court under Article 32 as issues of emotion and livelihood are attached to it.”