Ganesh Chaturti: The impact on the environment

This year in Mumbai alone, the upcoming Ganpati celebrations will see over a 100,000 sarvajanik and household idols of Lord Ganesha immersed in the sea and lakes. This means an ever increasing rise in the faith and devotion of His believers. Unfortunately, what this also means is that water bodies all over India will get another annual dose of thousands of tones of plaster of Paris, polythene bags, thermocol, plastics, and toxic chemical dyes.

Unfortunately 99% of these idols are made of non-biodegradable materials like plaster of Paris, thermocol, fiberglass, iron rods, plastic, and so on. Such immersed idols can be found intact even after a year after the festival. Contamination of water is worse and unimaginable than seas, in lakes and ponds. The pristine waters of most freshwater bodies like creeks where the immersions are taking place are slowly getting contaminated because of such a large scale mixing of toxins.

pH test of water samples collected in freshwater lakes after Anant Chaturdashi indicate that the water was alkaline before, but turned acidic after immersion, due to addition of the toxic watse. The flora and fauna of the water bodies where these immersions take place suffer from this sudden increase in acidity and toxicity of the water. Every year after the festival shoals of dead fish are washed ashore Mumbai beaches. In 2007, thousands of dead fish floated near the Kandivli coast a few days after the immersions.

Moreover 91 percent of the paints used are toxic, containing chemicals like mercury, cadmium, zinc, chromium, arsenic, lead and carbon. People using water polluted by the same can experience lung infection and diseases of skin, blood and eyes. Studies by the Pollution Control Board show that levels of lead, mercury and cadmium are fairly magnified within days after the immersion, causing considerable water pollution. Mr. N. Shashidhar from National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning Prevention in India said that paints used to colour the Ganesha idols contained a lot of lead, which led to contamination of water bodies.

Moreover plastic and thermocol accessories like artificial decorations and flowers used to decorate the idols are also non-biodegradable and toxic. These are also immersed in water.

Solutions:

Instead of having plaster of Paris idol, one can worship metal idol and it can be kept for many years and just perform a symbolic immersion. This will decrease the number of idols immersed every year in the lake and hence pollution will be reduced. If this is not an option our water bodies can also be spared the annual deluge of toxins and chemicals by immersing idols made from paper pulp or clay which are biodegradable and by using natural colours and dyes which are non-toxic.

Instead of large statues one can immerse idols which are less than 3 feet in height. This will reduce the pollution to great extent.

The idols should be immersed in the running water of river or sea or creek, not in the stagnant water of lakes. Moreover artificial ponds and huge concrete water tanks have been made for the purpose, and people are being encouraged to immerse their idols here. ‘Celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi in your hearts and homes, immerse the idols at home’.

Use more bio-degradable puja items and accessories, these can be made into manure through natural composting. Last year BMC recovered 2,200 metric tonnes of bio-degradabale waste like ‘nirmalya’ (used flowers, fruits, other offerings to Lord Ganesh) from the beaches and converted it.

Eco-Friendly Ganesh Chaturti:

According to the Puranas, Shree Gauri moulded Ganesha from clay and breathed life into him. From prana pratishtha/jagran to visarjan, the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration depicts the circle of life - human bodies take birth, live, then die, just as each year idols are created from earth and infused with energy through shraddha and human touch of the sculptor followed by the bhakti of the devotees only to be returned to the elements, to be reborn again the next year.

The Vedic tradition was of making ‘shaadu’ (natural clay) idols painted with non-toxic colors. People used to immerse these idols in their private wells and village ponds. Omved calls for a return to this age-old tradition and offers eco-friendly, bio-degradable Ganesha idols handcrafted using pure (lead-free) earthen or natural terracotta (shaadu maati) and painted with non-toxic environmentally-friendly colours. The idols will be available in sixteen designs averaging around Rs 600.

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