Habit is a very strong force in resisting change even where the argument for behavioural change is compelling. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) is an example for conquering the ‘habit’ of Nagpurians to pollute water bodies during festival season and compelled them to accept the change to immerse Ganesh idols in artificial tanks. It is worth mentioning that NMC is likely to be the only civic body in the country that barricades all its lakes before Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri to save these water bodies from water pollution. Like every year, this year also, NMC installed 419 artificial tanks throughout the city which is second highest in the country after Pune. Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) has erected more than 500 immersion tanks. Immersion of idols during Ganesh Chaturthi and Navratri in city lakes were a common activity a decade ago. But, with passage of time, the number of small and big idols in city in festival season increased and immersion of all idols in the city lakes are polluting the water bodies. Therefore, the then Mayor of Nagpur city Prof Anil Sole came up with the idea of artificial tanks way back in 2012 to reduce the number of idol immersion in city lakes.

 

“I was concerned over depleting condition of city lakes during my tenure. Mainly the use of Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols was causing major damage to the lakes,” Prof Anil Sole, former Mayor, told ‘The Hitavada’. NMC imposed ban on production of PoP idols in city in 2012. As a result, the PoP idol manufacturers knocked the doors of the judiciary. While hearing, the Nagpur Bench of Bombay High Court said that any civic body has no right to stop production of any commodity. Meanwhile, the court ordered the manufacturers to put red mark on the back side of every PoP idols and the sellers must display banner of PoP idols. “This court order hardly fulfilled our objective to stop immersion of idols in city lakes. Therefore, I came up with the plan to installation of artificial tanks in city in which citizens can immerse idols instead of in water bodies,” said Prof Sole. “Me and my family were the first who immersed our own eco-friendly Ganesh idol in an artificial tank which was appreciated by many in 2012. In the first year, NMC installed six artificial tanks and we urged citizens to immerse small Ganesh idols in those tanks,” said the former Mayor. “Today, I am glad to see that people have accepted this campaign and are co-operating every year to keep our lakes clean,” said Prof Sole. “After my tenure, former Mayor of the city Pravin Datke also continued the campaign and he initiated barricading city lakes to apply complete brake on idol immersion in water bodies,” he added.

 

Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Deputy Commissioner, Solid Waste Management Department, NMC said, “Adoption of artificial tanks for idol immersion was a good decision which helped to reduce water pollution due to idols and puja items like nirmalya. For successful implementation, we start planning months ago. Even NGOs like Green Vigil Foundation, Rotary Club of Nagpur, Tejaswini Mahila Manch etc also helping us in this campaign.” Kaustav Chatterjee, Founder, Green Vigil Foundation said, “We have been at Futala Lake since 2010. Initially, it was extremely difficult to convince citizens to not immerse idols in lake. Devotees were not even ready to handover nirmalya. We have found the dissolved oxygen (DO) level dropping down to 3 mg/l post Ganpati visarjan. Slowly, people got aware and the mind set changed. Standing at Futala lake, during last 14 years, we witnessed journey towards environmental sustainability as now our lakes can breathe freely.”