Widespread campaigns are already on for an eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi festival but still a large section of the society are unaware of the pollution and environmental damage caused by Plaster of Paris idols and chemical paints. Some large Ganesha Pandal committees, to attract maximum crowd conveniently forget the environmental impact caused by the idols.
The main pollution is caused by the Plaster of Paris Ganesh idols and the chemical paints used in them.
• Plaster of Paris (POP) is not a naturally occurring material and contains gypsum, sulphur,
hosphorus and magnesium. The idols take several months to dissolve in water and in the process poison
the waters of lake, ponds, rives and seas.
• The chemical paints used to decorate the Ganesh idol contain mercury, lead, cadmium and carbon
and this increases the acidity and heavy metal content in the water.
• Several accessories used during the Ganesh Puja like Thermocole, plastic flowers, cloth, incense,
camphor and numerous other materials are dumped carelessly adding more strain to the already
polluted rivers and lakes.
• The polluted water causes several diseases including skin diseases.
• The pollution from Ganesh Chaturthi idols also damages the ecosystem, kills fishes and water lants.
• In many areas, the same polluted water gets pumped into homes.
Alternate :
• Use eco-friendly clay idols painted with natural colors.
• Use permanent idols made of stone and perform a symbolic immersion and reuse the idol each year.
• Avoid public water bodies to immerse the idols, instead immerse idol in bucket or tub. Careless dumping
of Ganesh idols in water bodies blocks the natural flow of water. This results in stagnation and
breeding of mosquitoes and other harmful pests.
MUMBAI: About 300 children who are part of Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) cleaned up the Girgaum Chowpatty beach on Thursday morning - the day after Gauri Visarjan.
The shoreline was filthy in the morning, with flowers, idols, decoration material, broken glass, etc.
Children got down to work in right earnest, armed with gloves and aprons and did a commendable job of cleaning the beach.
Please see the album which has pictures of the beach before the cleanup, during cleanup and after!
