Nagpur: With deficient rainfall putting pressure on water resources, Akola’s appeal to major Ganesh mandals to reconsider immersing towering idols has raised a larger question for Nagpur — should the city impose a height cap on Ganesh idols instead of continuously expanding artificial immersion facilities?
A senior NMC official said the state govt had restricted idol heights in 2020 and 2021 as part of Covid-19 curbs. Household idols were limited to 2 feet and those installed by public mandals to 4 feet. NMC continued the height restrictions in 2022, citing inadequate facilities to handle taller idols.
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Civic activist Dinesh Naidu said Nagpur should reconsider permitting very large idols. The administration has to create artificial facilities and deploy considerable resources to handle them,” he said. Naidu said large idols that cannot be safely immersed should instead be preserved and reused for several years. Green Vigil Foundation founder Kaustav Chatterjee said, “The administration is continuously increasing the number and size of artificial immersion tanks, but the increasing height of idols is putting additional pressure on these resources. Environmental activist Mehul Kosurkar said protecting Nagpur’s lakes could not be left to the civic administration alone. “All stakeholders need to come together and take collective responsibility to make Ganesh visarjan truly eco-friendly,” he said.
However, the restrictions were later relaxed following political pressure, though immersion in natural water bodies continued to remain prohibited. “There is no sea here where such idols can be immersed. He also favoured encouraging citizens to opt for smaller clay idols that can be immersed at home, with the clay subsequently reused in kitchen gardens. Download the TOI App.
Akola has received only around 64% of its expected rainfall this season and several water bodies are at critically low levels. Ahead of immersions, district collector Varsha Meena appealed to mandals with idols, many over 15 feet tall, to reconsider immersion. Wherever possible, she suggested, idols could be preserved safely and immersed later when adequate water becomes available. The issue has resonance in Nagpur, where the civic administration has been creating increasingly large artificial immersion tanks and deploying machinery to handle taller idols.