Festival season has begun in India and Mumbaikars are at their peak of frenzy, rejoicing and celebrating the action packed days of Ganesh Chaturthi. With more than 10,000 pandals and over 1,75,000 Ganesh idols being set up in the city (including idols in homes), environmentalists and environment lovers are stressing out!
The environmental impact of the Ganesh Chaturthi (mainly the visarjan) are well known amongst all and are well researched on, over the years, but many still claim that this has not helped as much as it should have. “The Environment Act of the seventies and the Noise Pollution rules of 2000 have hardly helped in keeping the water bodies clean. I live at Marine Drive and I see how every year the visarjan of the Ganesh idols, leaves the city and the sea in a mess”, shares, Narang Patel, a businessman and a resident of south Mumbai.
Here’s how we could harmonize the interest of the environment without hurting anyone’s religious sentiments:
1) Awareness -This one’s the thumb rule..Don’t just propose ‘Green’ norms, follow them! Create awareness on environmental issues to make people realize how the festival can be celebrated in a more eco-friendly manner by educating the mandals that the immersion should begin at 5:45 pm which is when the low tide begins, and should get over within the next six hours.
2) Mercy for water bodies! -There are around 84 immersing points in and around Mumbai but these should be exploited less and many more temporary lakes and ponds should come in place. Until last year there were only 27 temporary ponds in Mumbai city. Many new ponds did come up this year in housing societies but these are still not enough to cater to the need of the hour, i.e. to save water and water bodies and the planet on a whole.
3) The smaller, the better - There is no stringent rule on the size yet, but ‘kinder devotees’/environmental lovers could do their bit by keeping the height of the idol less than eight feet. The blind race of “whose idol is the biggest” does serious damage to our precious rivers.
4) Where is the law - Blame it on who.. The authorities or the people, or both? Rules are announced every year but people seem to pay little heed. Issues on severe noise pollution in Mumbai city, made the officials come up with the ‘45decibel’ rule. But sadly, devotees are way louder than that! During Ganesh Chaturthi, noise levels went up to 170 decibels in 2011 and 110 decibels in 2012, disturbing many old and young. While awareness has helped a little in reducing the noise pollution, this very important rule is yet to bring peace in the city.
Besides this, the Maharashtra government has been trying for ages now to make the ban on PoP applicable and fully functional all over, only to become lenient again because this rule leads to uproar and opposition from many. PoP idols may take anywhere between several months to years to fully dissolve!
5) Save precious fuel - Come the rains and traffic snarls become a part of life.. Come the festivals and traffic snarls again become a part of daily life! Every year, authorities in Mumbai end up spending up to Rs.25 crore (indirect costs) in employing 6,000 workforce, including 1000 officers to manage the crowd and chaos during Ganesh Chaturthi. But it does not change much as people end up taking out their cars on the road, adding to more chaos than ever. So to avoid this mess go carpooling, trust public transport and save earth’s precious depleting resources.
Photo by ganpati.tv
