Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: Mumbai celebrates its quietest Ganeshotsav

People perform visarjan in a tank atop a truck at Nalasopara on Sunday. Pic/Hanif Patel

This year, Ganeshotsav has turned out to be not just low-key, but also a silent one with no processions or dhol-tashe. Last year, decibel levels had breached 110, but this time the pandemic seems to have dampened the festive spirit. BMC's guidelines for visarjan were followed and in many places trucks with mobile lakes arrived at doorsteps for visarjan.

Speaking to mid-day, Sumaira Abdulali, founder of Awaaz Foundation, said, "There was just one instance on the road opposite Worli Dairy where the sound of dhol-tasha had reached 100.7 decibel, but other than it, nothing of that sort happened till 9 pm," According to the Noise Pollution (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000, in residential areas the noise level should not go beyond 55dB in the day (from 6am to 10 pm) and 45dB at night (from 10 pm to 6 am). Though the threshold of pain is around 140 dB, any sound above 80 dB is harmful.

Home visarjan

Meanwhile, while civic bodies arranged vehicles at different spots and increased the number of artificial ponds set up across the city by four times, most people preferred to immerse idols at their homes or within their societies.

BMC contract workers wait behind barricades to collect Ganesh idols for immersion at Juhu beach. Pic/Satej Shinde

One of the reasons for it was that the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) teams were not being able to watch the visarjan and return clay remains of the idols to residents due to COVID-19 restrictions. As part of a traditional practice, the clay is taken back for puja.

This year, as per the BMC guidelines, there were a number of restrictions on visarjan ceremonies. No immersion processions were allowed and not more than five people could go for visarjan. While people went to artificial lakes for immersions, there were not many takers for the collection vehicles. Instead, many chose to immerse their idols at home.

Niranjan Nene, resident of Hindmata, Dadar East, said, "Till last year, we went to Mayor Bungalow for immersion. This year we went to an artificial lake at Shinde Wadi where they allowed three members to go till the lake. They gave us a flower instead of the idol's clay remains."

Visarjan at Shivaji Park, Dadar. Pic/Ashish Raje

Jogeshwari resident Yogesh Patil said, "Vehicles had been arranged where we could hand over our idols but my family was against it. We thought of going to an artificial lake in our vehicle."

Clay remains

Expressing similar feelings, Rita Makwana, corporator from Charni Road said, "People want to take the clay remains home. People have been very co-operative and many opted to immerse idols at their homes. Only one idol was immersed in the artificial lake in our area till 4 pm."

Even in Vile Parle, residents walked to the nearest artificial lakes. "People don't want to deposit the idols in the collection vehicles, hence we arranged for auto-rickshaws up to the lakes so that there are no traffic jams," said Abhijeet Samant from Vile Parle.

At Borivli's Saujanya Society the celebrations were cut down to one-and-a-half days from the usual five days. They also decided to immerse the idol within the society premises. Saujanya Society Ganesh Mandal in Borivli also changed their 34-years tradition of celebrating for five days. "The idea of the celebrations is to bring everyone together.

But this year due to COVID-19 it is not advisable to gather in large numbers. So we decided to cut down on the number of days and the size of the idol as well so that it can be immersed in a small tank," said Abhishek Raut, a member of the mandal.

Also Read: Ganesh Chaturthi 2020: How Mumbaikars are celebrating Ganpati in the time of COVID-19

Truck collects idols

In Dahisar, corporator Tejasvi Ghosalkar had arranged for a truck, which made rounds of the area to collect Ganesh Idols for immersion in the nearest artificial pond. "Everybody will be able to see the immersion of their idols as the process will be live-streamed on our Facebook page," said Ghosalkar.

IC Colony resident Praveen Waghela, who decided to opt for this service, said, "My family thought that this year they would not be able to see the visarjan, but the truck service is the best solution as we don't have to leave our homes."

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