Nagpur: While the Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) plans to cordon-off three lakes of the city during Ganesh idol immersions, Futala Lake will be bearing the brunt just like last year.
The civic body has envisaged zero-immersion target at Gandhisagar, Sakkardara and Sonegaon lakes. “Like last year, we will be completely barricading the three lakes. This time, we have also increased the number of artificial tanks to 250 so that there is no shortage during immersions,” said NMC’s health officer (sanitation) Dr Pradip Dasarwar.
Last year, the civic body was successful in achieving zero immersion at the three lakes. It, however, failed in saving Futala where over 700 huge idols went inside the lake.
With no alternate in place to immerse big idols, the entire burden will be on Futala which is already running low on dissolved oxygen level. According to civic officials, NMC attempted but could not find an alternate place “big enough” to immerse hundreds of big idols.
Contesting this claim, environmentalist Vijay Ghuge said that there were at least five big abandoned quarries which NMC could have utilized for immersing tall idols. “Situated in different directions, these quarries are easily accessible and at least 10-15 feet deep,” he said.
This time, NMC appealed to Ganesh mandals not to go for tall idols but activists said that the plea went unheard at most of the mandals.
According to them, the only option left with NMC is to start cleaning Futala soon after immersions. “Since NMC will not have to clean the rest of the lakes, it should use the entire force at Futala. To ensure minimize damage to the lake, the corporation should hire an agency for its in-depth cleaning,” said Kaustav Chatterjee, founder of Green Vigil.
During a post-immersion water monitoring programme last year, the organization had found that after the immersions, the lake’s turbidity rose to 90 Jackson Turbidity Unit (JTU) and its dissolved oxygen had declined to a dangerous 2.5 milligrams per litre. While turbidity is the presence of suspended solids in a water body, dissolved oxygen refers to microscopic bubbles of gaseous oxygen that are mixed in water and available to aquatic organisms for respiration. According to experts, it is the most important indicator of the health of a water body and should ideally be around 6 mg/l. At present, its level at Futala is 4.5 mg/l.
