Durga Puja and Dussehra festivities concluded last weekend, rivers and lakes once again became more polluted following immersion of idols worshipped in puja pandals across cities.
The guidelines formulated by the Central and state pollution control boards (CPCB and SPCBs) went largely unheeded in spite of some efforts by municipal bodies and police to curtail the practice.
Environmentalists and river experts have been campaigning against these idol immersions for over a decade now. Judicial interventions in the past, however, have not yielded the desired result. Every year, after Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja and Kali Puja, the biological oxygen demand (BOD) levels in rivers increase dramatically.
Traditionally, the idols were made of mud and painted with natural colours. But now many are made using plaster of Paris (PoP) and coated with harmful paints containing heavy metals, all of which end up in the rivers on Dussehra day.
According to non-profit Toxics Link, approximately 100,000 idols are immersed in India’s water bodies each year. With the rise in pollution levels in the rivers, a few states are now evolving ways to prevent or minimise idol immersion.
Impact on water quality
A 1993-95, a study by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB)—Impacts of Dussehra Festival on the River Hooghly: A case study—showed that every year at least 15,000 idols of Goddess Durga are immersed in the Hooghly river alone. The study states that this releases 16.8 tonnes of varnish and garjan oil and 32 tonnes of colours in the water. These colours contain a good doze of heavy metals like manganese, lead, mercury and chromium. The study also found that during Dusshera, oil and grease in the river increased by 0.99 milligram per litre (mg/l) and the concentration of heavy metals increased by 0.104 mg/l.
Just ahead of the festive season this year, the Allahabad High Court had banned immersion of idols in the Ganga and Yamuna rivers in Uttar Pradesh. The high court bench of Justice Ashok Bhushan and Justice Arun Tandon ordered a blanket ban on immersion of idols in the rivers. It also dismissed the plea of the state government that the idols would be immersed and then taken out immediately. The order was pronounced during the hearing of a petition of environmental activist, Sudhanshu Srivastava, to check the rising pollution levels in the Ganga.
Though the state administration officials pleaded for a year’s time, the bench declined their plea and ordered the state government to ensure that within a year there should be “zero immersion” in the rivers of Uttar Pradesh. The court had earlier asked the Uttar Pradesh SPCB to monitor the water quality before and after the immersion of idols. The report submitted before the court revealed that the water quality deteriorated drastically after immersion of idols.
According to the recent reports of the SPCB, delayed monsoon had increased the pollution in Ganga and the situation would be worse in winter. Water at Bithoor, the point where the Ganga enters Kanpur city, is quite clear but the river gets polluted further down. At Jajmau, the stretch of the Ganga in the city is the most polluted. The dissolved oxygen (DO) level at Bithoor is 7.6 mg per litre which decreases to 6.3 mg per litre at Jajmau. The acceptable level of DO for a drinking water reservoir is 4 mg per litre, the report stated. The report also indicated that immersion of a large number of idols during Ganesh Chaturthi had already affected the water quality.
The petitioner, Sudhanshu Srivastava, pleaded in the court that the district administration, despite several reminders, had failed to make adequate alternative arrangements for the immersion of idols in the Ganga.
The order was welcomed by several environmental activists in the state who have been fighting to curb river pollution. Several non-profit groups have also started campaigning for greener alternatives.
In 2009, the Bombay High Court had directed CPCB to frame guidelines to curb water pollution and Maharashtra SPCB and Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation were directed to implement them.
The CPCB guidelines direct local bodies to provide dedicated immersion points with synthetic liners at the bottom of the artificial water body. Idols can be immersed under supervision of SPCB. All idols then need to be removed from water bodies within 48 hours. The state governments have been asked to set up coordination committees comprising representatives of pooja committees, police, local NGOs and leaders to guide the public.
It recommends that monitoring of the water quality should be done in three stages—pre-puja, during the pujas and after the immersions. While most of the SPCBs do not have information on how much the quality of water in rivers and lakes in their jurisdiction are affected by idol immersion, some states like Gujarat and Karnataka have taken affirmative action.
States that have acted
Last year, the Gujarat government imposed a blanket ban on the use of PoP and other hazardous materials in idols and their immersion in any main water body. The state forest and environment department directed all the district collectors and municipal corporations to strictly prevent immersion of idols in natural water bodies by making artificial ponds near lakes and rivers for immersion of Tazia and idols during Ganesh Chaturthi, Dussehra and other festivals. The local administrations have been asked to barricade the “idol immersion points” and put synthetic liners in the artificial ponds ahead of immersion processions. These liners would be removed after the immersion ceremonies along with the idol remains, and disposed as per the solid waste management rules.
The Karnataka SPCB has introduced mobile immersion units for the immersion of Ganesh idols to prevent pollution of water bodies. KSPCB’s move is aimed at providing “immersion points” to people near their residence. It has also appealed to the residents to make use of eco-friendly idols for the festivities.
After Ganesh Chaturthi this year, over 130,000 Ganesh idols were immersed in artificial tanks at different locations in Nagpur and over 220 tonnes of puja samagri was collected. Last year, this figure was 90,000.
