The Hindu Business Line : It's an eco-friendly Ganesh Chathurthi this time in Karnataka

An eco-drive of all hues has been in top gear and topping them all is an initiative to make the city's dying water bodies somewhat breathe easy even as immersions loom on them.

The Elephant God's ritual bath will mostly be in mobile tankers rather than an immersion in lakes and wells across the city if the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board has its way.

The PCB is trying to ensure that post-pooja Ganesh idols, resplendent in their bright colours, flowers and festival remnants from thousands of homes, do not choke any and every water body.

And so, starting Saturday afternoon, the PCB will deploy for a whole week four mobile tankers in select residential areas to collect the idols.

A senior PCB official told Business Line that last year, soon after Ganesh immersion, an analysis made by the board found that the lakes and water bodies in which idols had been dumped showed high levels of lead and heavy metals - both considered toxic.

The steel tankers - specially fabricated to hold 2,500 litres of water to take in 100 idols - were meant to be an improvement on last year's awareness drive through pamphlets and banners at immersion spots.

The board had resorted to these options, as more drastic solutions such as banning painted idols or immersions at lakes needed political will.

The awareness drive of recent years, confined to Bangalore, has been showing results and may be carried on to other cities, the official said.

And what happens to the contents of the tankers? The water with dissolved idols will be treated at the PCB's urban eco park at Peenya and used for gardening.

In addition, civic authorities have created separate immersion corners at the edges of Lalbagh, Hebbal and four other lakes so that the idols do not go directly into the water.

Eco-Watch, an NGO started by film star-turned-environmentalist Suresh Heblikar, has been staging street plays in city centres on the ill-effects of painted idols immersed in lakes.

The Lake Development Authority, Bangalore's own official body created to rejuvenate scores of dying lakes, has released a one-minute video titled `Save Lakes' for telecasting on Doordarshan and Ee-TV.

As the theatres and the Kannada film industry are on a linguistic warpath, cinemas have not been screening a short film on the theme.

The police, too, have chipped in with reminders that high-decibel celebrations should not jar the fervour: and so, would you please turn that loud speaker down to bearable limits. One message seems to say it all: "Ganesha should be in our hearts and in our homes; not in our lakes."

More Stories on : Events | Environment | Karnataka

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