Experts call for adopting Pune model for immersing idols

Hyderabad: The Pune model of setting aside part of a lake for immersing idols should be adopted in Hyderabad, experts said.

Apart from segregating lakes for immersion, measures like sprinkling showers for clay idols and a one-colony-one-Ganesh policy will help solve the issue, they added.

Compared to Hyderabad, Pune witnesses a 10 per cent increase in the number of idols every year.

Environmentalist Gita Dendukuri said, “Around 3.4 lakh small idols are immersed in the Mula Mutha River in Pune along with the flowers used for decoration. Huge tanks next to the river are built separately for idols, flowers and coins,” she said.

The Pune Municipal Corporation appoints a team for the collection of puja material during the festival and temporary collection bins are also placed near these tanks, Ms Dendukuri said.

“In Bengaluru, the city corporation has constructed 12 small immersion tanks — kalyanis (artificial ponds) measuring 15.7m x 13.5m x 3 m near the lake — for immersion. There are 22 immersion spaces demarcated in portions of the lakes,” added Dr D.P. Rao, environmentalist and former director NRSC.

There are also mobile tanks for in situ immersion of idols up to 2 to 2.5 feet and containers at the entrance of the lakes to segregate flowers and other waste material; only idols are immersed. All immersions are done before 10.30 pm, he said.

“The Ganesh festival is important and was appropriately used by Bal Gangadhar Tilak during the freedom movement to bring people together. In Hyderabad the main immersion programme at the Hussainsagar is a combination of religious fervour and show of strength,” said Major Shiva Kiran (retd), head of Pakriti Mitra, an environmental organisation, and promoter of clay Ganesh idols.

With GHMC elections round the corner, the issue has political ramifications. It has been proved many times over that the Ganesh immersion is not the cause for the contamination of Hussainsagar. It is actually due to the industrial effluents flowing in through the Kukatpally drain, he pointed out.

“There is a lot of hue and cry during the Ganesh festival and after that everything is forgotten till it arrives the following year. For the average Hyderabadi, religion is a very personal affair with God and there is very little that we can do when groups across religions jostle for public space,” he said.