When people left Ganesh in the lurch

The low-hanging tree branches were
covered with flower garlands of
varied hues and sizes. Puja
materials, including the sacred
thread, colourful paper umbrellas
and paper garlands were left on the
ground. Also, hundreds of Ganesh
and Gowri idols were abandoned on
the pavement amidst uncleared
garbage on both sides of the gate
leading to the immersion pond in
Sankey Tank.
A day after the city celebrated
Ganesh and Gowri festivals with
pomp, devotees who splurged on
the fete did not seem have the
patience to immerse the idols in the
kalyani (immersion tank), and hence
left them on the pavement.
“They worship idols only to
abandon them so? This shows that
they lack civic sense and hold pujas
only for namesake,” said a resident,
upset after seeing the dump outside
his home.
Joggers and pourakarmikas were
also in for a surprise on Tuesday
morning when they found the
abandoned idols. Along with
clearing garbage, the pourakarmikas
had to remove the idols.
While there were no abandoned idols
in Ulsoor Lake, huge mounds of
garbage lay outside on both sides of
the gate. The volunteers at the lake
claimed that idols were immersed till
4 a.m. on Tuesday. They said at
least 40,000 idols were immersed in
the lake on Monday.
“After it started raining, people left
the idols near the immersion tank.
The volunteers had to immerse all
these idols,” said Nanjappa, Bruhat
Bangalore Mahanagara Palike’s
(BBMP) Assistant Executive Engineer
(Shivajinagar).
Meanwhile, the number of eco-
friendly idols seems to have seen a
slight increase. The BBMP and
personnel from the Karnataka Civil
Defence Corps are collecting data on
the idols at each of the 10 lakes
where immersion is permitted in the
city.
According to P.R.S. Chetan, Chief
Warden of Civil Defence, the 200-
odd Civil Defence personnel have
been instructed to ensure that no
puja material was dumped inside the
tanks, besides collect data on the
kind of idols (clay, plaster of Paris
or coloured) and the size.
Waste management expert N.S.
Ramakanth said the data would be
collected for the next 10 days and
collated later. He, however,
maintained that the number of idols
being immersed in tanks had
increased compared to last year.
“On the first day, the number of
idols immersed was at least 25 per
cent more than that of last year.
More idols are expected on
Wednesday, as the numbers swell
on the third day after the festival,”
he added.

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