HYDERABAD, INDIA, august 22, 2015 (The Hindu): Environmental concerns is an issue that crops up each year in the runup to Vinayak Chaturthi in the city. And like in previous years, immersion of statues in Hussainsagar Lake scheduled in the last week of September grabbed the spotlight this time too. Built in 1562, the lake dividing the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad has pollution of all sorts, from sewage to industrial effluents, flowing in it for several decades converting it into a cesspool of contamination. Various initiatives over the years aimed at cleaning the lake and restoring its glory of being a drinking water source have failed and crores of rupees have gone down the drain.
It’s this lake where scores of statues of Lord Ganesha head for immersion after eleven days of festivities. Environmentalists raise objection to the practice on the grounds that the plaster of paris, paint and other material used in statue making pollute the water body. Estimates suggest that at least 25,000 to 30,000 big statues are immersed in the lake, apart from a large number of smaller ones, all put together crossing the 50,000 mark. And each year, cases are filed in courts seeking to stop the immersion. This year too, permission has been given for statue immersion as the festival is just a month away and work on statues has already begun.
Bhagyanagar Ganesh Utsav Samithi, however, rejects the contention of statues polluting the lake. Samithi general secretary, Bhagwant Rao, argues that the damage to water body was from the sewage and industrial effluents and not statues. Earlier, High Court had directed the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) to immediately remove statues after immersion and the same is any way being done, Dr. Rao says.