Aftermath of the pujas

by October 25, 2013 Environment

More than a month and a half have gone since the Ganesha festival, but the idols and trash at the Kalyani tank at Kaikondrahali Lake still make for a sorry sight. There are also the flowers and leaves which were collected in big trash bags.

The Kalyani at Kaikondrahalli on Oct 8th. Pic: Rajesh Dubey.

This is a negligence of duty from the garbage contractor. Lake monitoring committee members have been calling them continuously for weeks now. Each time, we are told that it will be cleared within a week.

And weeks come and weeks go, the stuff remains.

The Kalyani at Kaikondrahalli on Oct 25th. Pic: Shilpi Sahu

Mahadevapura zone Chief Engineer Munikrishna says they are still looking for a ‘suitable place’ to dump the Plaster of Paris idols. Obviously, they can’t just dump anywhere but it turned out the contractor who got the contract to remove Ganeshas doesn’t have the license to dump at Mandur. He apparently tried to dump it within some village limits, and villagers in those areas have protested.

Next year onwards, we hope POP Ganeshas are banned.

Sections:

About Meera K

Meera K is the co-founder of Citizen Matters, the award-winning civic media platform. She also helped initiate Open City, an urban data platform (opencity.in). Meera is an Ashoka Fellow, recognised for her work building open knowledge platforms that allow citizens to collaborate and improve their cities. She is Founder-trustee at Oorvani Foundation.
Read more by Meera K

Comments:

  1. Vaidya R says:
    October 25, 2013 at 6:57 am

    Pretty much the same near Mallathahalli Lake. Two sides of the Kalyani abut the path around the lake. Last year they left them next to the path on one side, which are still lying there. This year they covered the other side. Wonder what they’ll do next year.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Similar Story

Blocked Kovalam-Nemmeli wetland channels risk disaster for South Chennai; Conservationists urge action  

by October 21, 2026 Environment
Barriers built for the Mamallan Reservoir block Buckingham Canal water flow, vital to keep the wetland alive, avoid floods and sustain fishing families.

In Chengalpattu district, the main water channels of the Kovalam-Nemmeli coastal wetland, which drains a catchment of more than 270 square kilometres, have currently been blocked. Barriers that obstruct water flow have been built across Chennai's Buckingham Canal at three places: Thiruvidanthai-Vadanemmeli, near the Nemmeli-Thiruporur bridge, and Saluvankuppam. Earlier, we explored how the Mamallan Reservoir causes serious damage to the wetland’s ecology and how fishing livelihoods are affected. Field investigations by the Wetland Conservation Network have recorded the blockages preventing tidal exchange in the Buckingham Canal.           According to officials, these barriers were put up to enable construction of the Mamallan…

Continue reading

Similar Story

Explained: How Mumbai is losing its tree cover to infrastructure projects

by October 12, 2026 Environment
Mumbai's landscape is changing with big infra projects. Experts suggest better use of government plots and improved street design to retain green cover.

Long before Mumbai’s relentless summer even began this year, the city was already simmering. In March, Mumbai was hit by a severe heatwave, with the temperature reaching a five-year high of 40° Celsius. As rapid urbanisation and a flurry of infrastructure projects replace dense tree cover with steel and mortar, heatwaves seem to have gone from being rare occurrences to an annual threat.   The Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Limited (MMRCL) cut a whopping 3,093 trees in Aarey Colony to make way for Mumbai’s Aqua Line ( Metro 3). For environmentalist Stalin Dayanand, this is not just a temporary problem.…

Continue reading