Ganesh Idol Dumping Leaves Nagpur’s Lakes Polluted

thenewsdirt
1 day ago
9 min read

In the wake of Ganesh Chaturthi festivities, Nagpur’s lakes and streets are witnessing an unsettling sight of broken and abandoned Ganesh idols strewn near water bodies.

Just days after the immersion rituals (visarjan), locals around Futala Lake and Sonegaon Lake woke to find half-submerged pieces of plaster and clay that were once revered icons. The spectacle has raised urgent concerns about environmental pollution and negligence, as devotion appears to turn into disregard once the festival concludes.

Residents and community leaders in this Vidarbha city are voicing anguish at seeing the very idols worshipped for 10 days treated as waste immediately after, signalling a deeper problem of poor enforcement of eco-friendly guidelines.

Lakes Choked with Post-Visarjan Pollution

Every year, the large-scale immersion of Ganesh idols leaves Nagpur’s water bodies burdened with pollutants. Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols, in particular, are a major culprit.

Unlike traditional clay idols that dissolve naturally, PoP idols do not disintegrate easily. They linger at the bottom of lakes, leaching chemicals from brightly painted surfaces.

Environmental surveys have shown measurable declines in water quality following the immersion season. For instance, dissolved oxygen levels in Futala Lake dropped sharply after Ganesh visarjan, indicating the water’s reduced ability to support aquatic life.

Green Vigil Foundation, a local environmental NGO, recorded a post-immersion dissolved oxygen of around 3 mg/L in Futala, down from roughly 4.5 mg/L before immersions, along with murky, silt-laden water.

Such drops in oxygen can be devastating. In past incidents, Nagpur’s Gandhisagar Lake even saw fish deaths attributed to idol immersions when oxygen levels fell below the safe threshold.

Besides PoP fragments, tons of floral offerings (nirmalya) decaying in the water further deplete oxygen and cloud the lakes. Turbidity spiked and water turned alkaline in samples taken after immersions, painting a grim picture of Nagpur’s lakes struggling under the weight of post-festival pollution.

Local activists point out that the chemical paints on many idols contain toxic metals like lead and barium, compounding the contamination. These heavy metals can accumulate in lake sediments and enter the food chain, posing risks to fish, birds, and anyone coming into contact with the water.

The visual pollution is stark as well. Photographs of Futala and Sonegaon lakes show fragments of Lord Ganesh’s visage and limbs littering the shoreline.

Volunteers and municipal workers often scramble to collect these remnants in the days following the festival, but by then, much damage is done. The clean-up operations appear overwhelmed by the sheer volume of idols and puja waste generated by the city’s celebrations.

Nagpur is home to dozens of immersion sites, and even with efforts to concentrate immersions in designated tanks or one major lake, the environmental toll is evident.

Year after year, the city’s treasured lakes are left choked with plaster debris, high turbidity, and depleted oxygen levels, a direct result of negligent immersion practices.

Guidelines vs. Ground Reality

There is no shortage of rules on paper to prevent this very scenario. The Maharashtra government and environmental authorities have issued strict guidelines in recent years to curb water pollution from idol immersions.

Plaster of Paris idols are officially banned from being immersed in natural water bodies.

Revised directives in 2020 by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) urged the use of traditional clay and natural dyes, and even mandated a red mark on PoP idols to identify them for separate handling. In August 2025, the state introduced fresh measures that every PoP idol, large or small, must carry a red dot on its back and be immersed only in artificial tanks, not lakes or rivers.

Public celebrations are required to register idols with the civic body, and local administrations must provide ample artificial ponds with water treatment facilities. The rules even specify that any PoP idol immersed in a natural water body must be retrieved within a day, and that wastewater from temporary immersion ponds be treated and recycled.

On paper, Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) has embraced these directives. This year, the city set up 419 artificial immersion tanks at 216 locations and ran awareness drives promoting eco-friendly Ganeshotsav.

In reality, however, enforcement has lagged far behind. Many of the government’s guidelines have remained largely on paper, with implementation patchy at best. One major challenge has been the sheer prevalence of PoP idols despite the rules.

Although Nagpur had earlier led a campaign to eliminate locally-made PoP murtis, market demand continues to bring them in from outside. This year saw a surge of PoP idols in circulation after a court lifted a blanket ban on their sale.

According to NMC data, over 9,400 PoP idols were immersed in Nagpur in the 2025 festival, a significant increase from previous years.

These idols accounted for roughly 6% of the 1.62 lakh total idols immersed in the city’s tanks, a proportion that spiked from about 4-5% in earlier years. Activists attribute the jump to weaker enforcement. Many retailers sold PoP idols without the required red markings or warnings, and officials struggled to monitor compliance across hundreds of idol makers and sellers.

NMC’s own nuisance detection squads confiscated hundreds of PoP idols from shops in 2024 and imposed fines, yet the pipeline of plaster idols resumed as legal uncertainties grew. “Markets were flooded with PoP idols this year,” observes Surbhi Jaiswal of Green Vigil Foundation, noting that shopkeepers were neither labelling PoP statues nor informing buyers about proper immersion procedures.

Once the festival ended, the shortcomings in enforcement became even more evident. Nagpur’s civic body found itself saddled with thousands of collected PoP idols from the temporary immersion tanks, and no truly eco-friendly way to dispose of them.

The Ministry of Environment had directed all cities to undertake “scientific treatment or reuse” of PoP remains, but Nagpur officials admit this has not been practically achieved. In the absence of a viable recycling method, NMC resorted to dumping the recovered PoP idols in abandoned stone quarries outside the city limits, as has been done in previous years.

This method merely shifts the pollution from water to land, where the plaster and chemical dyes then risk leaching into soil and groundwater.

Civic officials say they explored alternatives: before the festival, NMC convened meetings with scientists at CSIR-NEERI (a prominent research institute in Nagpur, Vidarbha) and the Government Institute of Science to find a solution. One idea was to chemically dissolve PoP idols using a sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) solution, an experiment trialled in 2016 at a city lake.

That experiment failed, with most idols remaining intact and the chemical broth emitting a foul odour that upset nearby residents. “We tried dissolving PoP idols in baking powder for days – instead of breaking down, they just created a stench,” an NMC sanitation officer recalls, explaining why the plan was shelved.

Other proposed solutions include pulverising the plaster into powder for reuse in manufacturing chalks, slates or building materials. However, officials caution that grinding idols to powder can offend religious sentiments if not handled sensitively. As a result, truly sustainable disposal methods have yet to materialise.

A senior NMC officer bluntly stated that eco-friendly disposal of PoP idols is practically impossible at present, given that PoP is non-biodegradable and laced with harmful chemicals. Researchers echo that sentiment: while gypsum (calcium sulfate) from PoP can be extracted and potentially reused (one Pune laboratory has even repurposed idol plaster for medical casts), the heavy metals in idol paints remain a vexing problem without further scientific breakthroughs.

The gap between guidelines and ground reality is also evident in how idols still end up in the wrong places. Despite explicit bans, some immersions in natural lakes continue clandestinely, especially of larger community idols, or when devotees choose convenience over rules. In 2019, after NMC restricted immersions to one lake, a few idols were still found dumped in other lakes post-deadline, indicating lapses in monitoring.

This kind of non-compliance, along with the practice of simply abandoning damaged idols by the lakeside (instead of properly immersing them), underscores a persistent negligence.

Authorities find themselves in a reactive mode each year, cleaning up and making ad-hoc disposal arrangements, rather than preventing the pollution in the first place.

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has at times pressed the civic administration to do better, even demanding financial guarantees from NMC to enforce immersion norms, yet lasting change on the ground remains elusive.

The enforcement shortfall is compounded by limited public cooperation. Many citizens are either unaware of the rules or choose to ignore them, putting convenience or cost above environmental concerns. The result is a yearly replay of the same scenario. Well-intentioned guidelines, but patchy execution that leaves Nagpur’s lakes and surroundings paying the price.

Community Reactions and Religious Sentiments

The spectacle of Ganesh idols being treated as garbage after the festival has struck a nerve across Nagpur’s communities. Devotees, environmentalists, and even Hindu nationalist groups in Vidarbha have all voiced dismay at the disrespect and pollution involved. “These idols are sacred, not pieces of clay,” emphasised a priest at Sonegaon Lake, distressed to see holy images of Lord Ganesh left shattered on the ground.

According to Hindu tradition, once an idol is consecrated and worshipped, it must be reverently returned to nature, typically by immersion in water or burial under a sacred tree.

Dumping a deity’s form by the roadside or lakeshore is considered deeply hurtful and against the sanctity of the ritual. Niranjan Risaldar, the Vidarbha media head of the Bajrang Dal, condemned the rising trend of casual abandonment. “Whenever we find such idols, we immerse them properly with rituals.

But this practice of just walking away from a broken murti is increasing every year,” he said, adding that if devotees cannot show reverence to the idol even after the puja, “then the rituals mean nothing.”

His concern is shared by many who celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi with fervour and now feel let down seeing its aftermath. Local residents recount how immersion day celebrations are full of music and devotion, yet the morning after, the same idols lie forgotten in pieces. “That indifference hurts more than anything,” says Sahil Khan, a student living near Futala Lake, describing the heartbreak of seeing faith objects treated as trash.

Civic authorities, for their part, acknowledge the problem but insist they are doing all they can. The Nagpur Municipal Corporation points out that dozens of portable immersion tanks and special cleaning crews are deployed each year to facilitate proper idol disposal.

“Immersion tanks are arranged, and post-festival cleaning is carried out. Citizens must cooperate and use these facilities,” urged Rishikesh Ingale, a zonal officer of NMC, responding to the criticism.

From the officials’ perspective, they have provided the means for an eco-friendly celebration. It is now up to the public to follow through. However, many citizens argue that administrative arrangements cannot replace personal responsibility.

They observe volunteers at artificial ponds carefully lifting out the dissolved clay sludge to recycle it, while nearby, some devotees still dump offerings directly into the lake despite barricades and signage. “True faith is not just during the visarjan procession. Respecting the idol even in its final form matters,” says Ankita Deshmukh, a resident of Civil Lines, who believes environmental responsibility is a natural extension of devotion.

Her sentiments reflect a growing awareness in Nagpur that spiritual reverence and ecological sensitivity must go hand in hand. Environmental advocates in the region have been campaigning to instil this mindset, encouraging families to switch to natural clay idols, use permanent metal or stone idols for home worship, or participate in community recycling programs for festive waste.

Even as public awareness slowly grows, activists like those in Green Vigil Foundation remain concerned that policy enforcement is lagging. “If the current lax approach continues, next year will be a bigger challenge,” warns Mehul Kosurkar of Green Vigil, noting the spike in PoP idols this year. He and others argue that authorities must reinstate and enforce the ban on PoP idols or come up with a “foolproof plan” before the next Ganesh Chaturthi.

They worry that without concrete action, Nagpur could see an even larger influx of cheap PoP statues, leading to more pollution. On the legal front, environmental petitioners stress that this is not an assault on religious tradition, “but a fight against pollution.” Court directives have tried to balance faith with sustainability, allowing people to celebrate, yet with conditions to safeguard water bodies.

It is a balance that will ultimately rely on the collective effort of government vigilance, strict penalties for flouting rules, and wholehearted public participation in eco-friendly practices.

As of now, community sentiment in Nagpur is a mix of devotion and frustration. Devotion towards Lord Ganesh, and frustration that the meaning of that devotion is undermined by the mess left behind. From social media discussions to neighbourhood meetings, citizens are calling for a change in how the city bids farewell to its beloved Ganpati each year.