‘Wash and melt’ Durga puja organisers take green way to immerse idols

Kolkata, Oct 15 (PTI) Idols of Goddess Durga and her progeny were washed and melted inside marquees at several places in and around Kolkata, instead of the usual practice of taking them to rivers and ponds for immersion, to save the water bodies from pollution.
    All other pre-immersion rituals were followed in this process that was hailed by environmentalists.
    “We had opted for this eco-friendly immersion shunning the practice of taking out a grand immersion procession accompanied by music in loudspeakers to the river Hooghly in past.
    “Though the idol is immediately lifted from the water by a crane, there is danger of the river water being contaminated by chemicals used in crafting the idols,” said a spokesperson of Tala Prattay, a crowd-puller puja organiser in north Kolkata.
    Around 20 km away, organisers of the Kendua Santi Sangha Puja at Patuli in the south, also arranged an ‘immersion’ of their idol using water sprayed through fire brigade hose pipes.
    “We followed all rituals. But to save the environment and stop water pollution, we opted for such an immersion process inside the marquee,” puja committee chief organiser Bappaditya Dasgupta said.
    The idol was sculpted for months inside the marquee and “immersed” at the same place, he said adding that the same procedure would be followed next year.
    The Sahid Colony Sarbojonin Durgotsav at Sodepur in the northern fringes of the city also used the wash and melt method to “immerse” their huge idol inside the pandal as fire brigade personnel sprayed water from the fire tenders.
    Their idol was immersed in river Hooghly in past, organiser Govinda Das said.
    Calling for more such initiatives, green crusaders Somendra Mohan Ghosh and Subhas Datta said priests had confirmed that immersion of idols in water bodies is not mandatory.
    Dutta had been instrumental in cleaning up water bodies by the administration post-immersion, moving the high court a few years back.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)