In Maharashtra rain, Ganpati’s favourite village takes direct hit

Eighty kilometres from Mumbai, in his workshop in Ambeghar village, Vijay Chavan (45) stood surrounded by thousands of damaged idols. Outside in the fields, more dismembered idols floated in the swirling waters.

Along with his team of 11 artisans, Chavan had made over 10,000 idols for the annual Ganapati festival. ‘‘Over 5000 pieces have been destroyed by the floods on Monday,’’ he said, eyes ringed with anxiety.

A third generation sculptor, Chavan is one of the estimated 25,000 craftsmen of Pen, who traditionally use clay for their hand-made idols. Over 3 lakh idols are made annually that are worshipped by devotees from Bombay to USA.

Following the heavy rains last week that flooded the state’s Konkan belt, water, four-feet deep, had collected in Chavan’s workshop.

While the smaller pieces completely collapsed, the bigger and more magnificent works developed muddy stains at the bottom.

‘‘The sludge marks are impossible to remove,’’ said Chavan, whose work is sustained by annual bank loans. On the eve of each festive season, he finds himself in a debt worth Rs 8 lakh.

This year, ‘‘while my casts are damaged, even the 70,000 that I recently spent on paint in Mumbai have got destroyed in the rain. How am I to raise money and carry out the coming year’s work?’’ he asked desperately.

‘‘We are essentially a wholesale industry,’’ said Shrikant Deodhar, president of the local Sri Ganesh Murtikar Ani Vyavasaya Mandal.

‘‘This is the time when our Ganpatis are delivered. A fortnight later, and the losses would have been halved. About a lakh Ganpatis are damaged, and our association sculptors must have incurred losses of over Rs 80 lakh. It is difficult for sculptors to recover it all from insurance claims, which are riddled with technicalities,’’ he said.

The estimates do not include the smaller sculptors in the villages around Pen, who make fewer, but equally beautiful idols, and are usually not covered by insurance or industry organizations.

‘‘An official came earlier to do a panchnama of my damaged idols,’’ said Jomadevji Mhatre of Shirki village, trying desperately to salvage his damp Ganpatis with a bulb and kerosene heater. ‘‘He didn’t say anything about state aid. I doubt anything significant will reach us.’’ What makes matters worse, pointed out another sculptor, Sunil Shinde, is that with the festive season barely weeks away, there isn’t even any time to make new idols. Around 3000 of his 7000 idols have been destroyed.

‘‘We want the government to have banks excuse our loans or extend the payback period, or even or relax the technicalities of insurance relief,’’ Shinde said. Union minister Sharad Pawar, who toured Raigad, made promises to this effect in a meeting at a local bank in Pen.

RAINS DISRUPT LIFE IN MUMBAI AGAIN

• Fresh rains lash Mumbai, Raigad; state toll 891

• Army, lifeboats on stand-by in Mumbai, low-lying areas already waterlogged

• Control rooms set up in state, helpline formed in Mumbai

• Central Railway cancels all long-distance trains via Igatpuri-Kalyan till Aug 6

• Mumbai airport suspends all flights for over 6 hours

• Schools, colleges to remain closed on Monday in Mumbai, Thane

• 50 villages in Satara cut off

• Relief work on in Marathwada

• 20,000 families staying in low-lying areas of Nanded shifted

• State govt orders immediate distribution of relief; each family to get foodgrain, Rs 5,000