A Green Goodbye

The High Court’s order to ban immersion of idols in rivers in the state not only during Ganesh festival but also on other similar festivals, including Durga Puja, Janmashtami, Muharram etc, had come on a petition filed by the Surat Citizens Council Trust. It was welcomed by green activists as the ban on immersion would prevent pollution of water bodies.

However, it was not easy to implement. Videos had been doing the rounds in Surat provoking people to cock a snook at the police commissioner’s notification against immersing idols in the natural water bodies.

Despite the Surat administration digging up 22 artificial ponds for the purpose of immersion, remains of idols were seen floating in the Tapi, the lifeline of the city. The city had 72,100 registered Ganesh pandals this year, nearly twice as many as last year’s 30,250.

So by September 23, the final day of immersion, the Surat police had increased patrolling along the Tapi river and set up barricades around the 32 wharfs.

A puja organiser perform visarjan by showering water on an idol in Surat. (Photo: PTI )

In Vadodara city with 22,000 registered pandals, four artificial ponds were created to prevent people from immersing idols at Sursagar lake. Fourteen other ponds were also identified for it.

In Ahmedabad city with 27,000 idols, 34 artificial ponds were dug, and in Rajkot city, five sites were demarcated for immersion of around 7,000 idols to prevent contamination of natural water bodies.

“Till now, the community of fishermen, residing in Nanpura area of Surat, handled the immersions at Ducca and Navdi wharfs and it is an alternate source of income for them. But this time due to our instructions, the angry fishermen community circulated messages on social media groups telling people not to give in to the law banning immersion of idols in the river. We came to know about the videos and summoned those who featured in the messages and warned them of strict action. We also offered them to participate in immersions of idols in the sea at Dumas. They agreed to our proposal,” said Surat Commissioner of Police Satish Sharma.

With the city witnessing a minor communal clash between Ganesh pandal organisers and Tazia organisers in the run-up to the festivals, the police changed the routes of the immersions as well as Tazia processions to minimise traffic jams and reduce the chances of confrontation. Even DJ bands were banned, to avoid unnecessary commotion.

“A few days before the final immersion, cases were filed against 15 organisers for playing DJ music at the pandal,” Sharma added.

The authorities also fixed the maximum height of idols. According to the Surat police, at least 72 FIRs were registered against Ganesh pandal organisers for having Ganesh idols over nine-foot-tall.

In Vadodara city, police listed 18 artificially-created ponds for immersions with maps marking entry and exit points. Patrolling in the communally-sensitive areas of the walled city was launched much ahead of the immersion day. “Nearly 400 CCTV cameras were installed across the city, concentrating specifically in the old city area to keep an eye on the activities of anti-social elements. Around 8,000 police personnel, including 3,250 homeguards, six companies of State Reserve Police, one company of BSF and Rapid Action Force each were deployed,” said Vadodara Assistant Commissioner of Police V R Gamit.

Across the city, five heavy-traffic areas falling on the procession routes, including Mandvi, Laheripura, Lalbaug bridge and Kothi chaar road, were declared “no parking zones”. A notification was issued prohibiting entry of sound systems beyond a point towards the artificial ponds to facilitate timely immersion of the idols.

In Ahmedabad, RAF personnel were deployed along the Sabarmati Riverfront to stop people from immersing the idols in the river. Despite the deployment of security forces along the riverfront, residents were seen immersing idols in the river.

“I did not come across a single incident where a big idol was immersed in the Sabarmati river, though there were stray incidents of people immersing small idols. Since the riverfront is a 11-km-long, it becomes difficult to put a check throughout this long period,” said Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner Vijay Nehra, claiming 95 per cent compliance rate.

Desisting pressure from community pandal organisers, Ahmedabad’s civic body discontinued the practice of deploying cranes on all the bridges across the city to facilitate immersion of large Ganesh idols into the Sabarmati. To make up for this, nine large ponds — eight to 10 feet deep — were dug up to immerse large idols for the first time. Twelve cranes were also deployed beside these ponds to facilitate the immersion.

Another first was allowing immersion at the Chhat Puja ghat that has been developed near Indira bridge on the Sabarmati river. “Since we have developed this ghat for Chhat puja at a cost of Rs 10 crore, it was decided to use this for Ganesh immersion as well this time. The 250-foot stretch was filled with water pumped from Narmada canal along with the approach road built on both the sides of the bridge. This initiative proved out to be a success as it was extensively used by residents,” Nehra added.

In Rajkot city, idols were immersed in a pool downstream Aji-I dam and a flooded stone quarry. Immersions were allowed at Hanumandhara downstream near Padadhar on the outskirts of the city and in Nyari river near Vagudad village. None of these points are source of drinking water or in the basin of water bodies that provide drinking water to city residents, and therefore, authorities said, contamination of water was prevented.

“More than 7,000 idols were immersed at these five points. To ensure that there was no hiccup in immersion, fire-brigade teams removed major idols from immersion points once the procession had returned. We had deployed police at all the five points to ensure that everything is done smoothly,” Rajkot Municipal Commissioner Banchhanidhi Pani said.

According to Rajkot city Police Commissioner Manoj Agrawal, police were deployed at Aji-I dam to see to it that nobody immersed idols in the dam, which is a major source of drinking water for the city. “Police were there and no untoward incident was reported. We did not allow immersion of idols in flowing water in Aji river or in the reservoirs that are sources of drinking water and adhered to guidelines of the National Green Tribunal,” he added.

The move was appreciated by the green activists and also some Ganesh mandals.
“We are now satisfied with the actions taken by Surat municipal officials and local police department, and the support of people for protecting the Tapi river. We have been fighting for this cause since 2013 and we got an order in our favour from the NGT (National Green Tribunal) in 2015, but nobody was interested in its implementation. But this time we took up the issue seriously and filed the PIL,” said Surat Citizen’s Council Trust president Sharad Kapadia, who had filed the petition in the High Court.

Surat Ganesh Utsav Samiti president and BJP municipal councillor Anil Biscuitwala also backed the initiative. “Our first preference is to save the Tapi river from getting polluted. We have been appealing to people, but they were not taking it seriously. This time, the police department and corporation officials worked together to make history,” he said, adding that this time many puja organisers immersed their idols in buckets near the pandals.
“For the first time, we have changed the habit of people by not providing alternative to artificial ponds. We have now decided to make this a a tradition. We also worked it out in a way so as to not damage the idols and hurt the religious sentiments of the people. We have set a benchmark and like this any city can follow the Surat model to safeguard the river,” said Surat Municipal Commissioner M Thennarasan.

Amid the kudos, the regional officer of Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) in Rajkot, Hemant Patel, red-flagged the exponential rise in the number of idols with each passing year. “Every year, the number of idols being immersed in water bodies is going up. Due to religious sentiments, not many idols are recycled. Therefore, efforts have to be made to sensitise pandal organisers and persuade them to make eco-friendly idols,” he said pointing to the use of Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols.

“A POP idol usually takes around a month to disintegrate. Plaster of Paris has calcium base and therefore it is water-soluble, though it takes a little longer. Therefore, PoP is not a problem. The issue lies with inorganic colour dyes that are sprayed on the idol. They can lead to pollution. Organic colours can help address the question to some extent,” Patel added.

Some pandal organisers claimed of already adopting to eco-friendly measures. “Though we install a huge idol, very less amount of PoP is used to prepare it. We get our idol prepared in Nasik in Maharashtra and it has only a thin layer, 7 mm or 12 mm of PoP. We are aware of the issue of pollution. Therefore, artists use water colour while preparing the idol,” said Jimmy Advani, organiser of Rajkot ka Raja Ganesh pandal, who is also with the VHP.

But the proactive effort of the administration has left many disappointed in certain quarters. “The charm of Ganpati Visarjan was lost this year. The euphoria and enthusiasm that we would see among people at Sursagar (lake in Vadodara) was not the same this year. We missed Sursagar. The entire crowd that would gather at one place, bidding farewell to bappa, was divided among multiple places, this time. But we had no option this year. And for the next year, we will see what happens,” said Vicky Shinde, a member of Junigadhi Mitra Mandal, who have been immersing their Ganesh idol in Sursagar lake for the last 70 years.

Shinde may be disappointed, but a day after the immersion as pictures of a clean Sursagar lake taken by drone cameras circulated on social media, many rejoiced.