Eco bodies join hands to prevent pollution of lakes during idol immersion

As these idols are made of materials that harm the environment and water bodies and also affect aquatic life in turn, the Corporation authorities opened a discussion with representatives of environmental organizations engaged in conserving lakes in the city, on Saturday. It was a first step towards saving the environment by various eco bodies in Coimbatore.

With support from corporation the eco bodies tried a different approach to save the lakes from pollution due to immersion of hundreds of Vinayaka idols made of Plaster of Paris and other non-degradable materials.

On Sunday, the organizations were allotted Kurichi Lake, Vellakinar and Singanallur Lake in the city where the immersion was scheduled to take place.

Volunteers began collecting degradable and non-degradable decorative materials from the idols and minimized the volume of wastes getting dumped into water bodies.

They did not permit smaller idols made of Plaster of Paris to be immersed, though they could not prevent immersion of bigger idols.

R Manikandan, the organiser of Kovai Kulangal Pathukapu Amaipu, said that their team which was at work at Kurichi Tank appealed to the public not to immerse idols made of Plaster of Paris in the coming years.

The teams also identified those immersing eco-friendly idols made of clay and materials such as fish feed. “We will hand over the list to the corporation who will identify a few of them and give them certificates of appreciation,” Manikandan said.

Last, but not the least, these volunteers also took stock of the materials used for making these idols that were brought for immersion.

On Monday, volunteers will collect floating materials from the lakes. “We will wait for the water level to go down to collect the submerged wastes,” added Vinny R. Peter an activist striving hard to conserve the Singanallur Lake.

Communal harmony evident

COIMBATORE: More than 400 big idols were taken out in a grand procession by organisations and residents in the textile city on Sunday. They were immersed in Vellakinar and Kurichi Lake and Singanallur Lake. As very little water was available in Kurichi Lake, at Kuniyamuthur, the corporation and police pumped in water to prepare a pond for a depth of three to four feet. Ramps were prepared at the other lakes and tanks to facilitate immersion.To promote communal harmony, Christians and Muslims of Srinagar near. Pichampalayam in Tirupur took part in the immersion procession. They took out a nine-foot-tall idol installed at the locality by the Tamil Nadu Vishwa Hindu Parishad. Representatives of various political parties, including DMK and AIADMK, also participated in the procession. Two teenagers, including a 19-year-old college student and a 17-year-old school student, drowned while immersing the idols at Mettur Dam, late on Saturday evening. Their bodies were retrieved and sent to the Government Hospital for post-mortem.

Following the incident, police and fire and rescue services personnel stepped up security measures at the immersion points in the dam.

Salem Citizens Forum creates artificial pond to save 58-acre sprawling Mookaneri Lake 

To prevent the Mookaneri Lake from pollution in Salem City, Salem Citizens Forum (SCF) dug up a pit to for immersing Vinayakar idols. “We spent Rs 37,000 to dig up the pit with earth movers and to pump water into it. Soon after the work was completed on Saturday evening, we had people ready to immerse their idols,” said Piyush Manush, the coordinator of SCF.

The forum that has been carrying out various development works in the lake since 2010 came out with this idea this year as their struggles to prevent immersion of idols in the lake last year turned out to be futile.

Due to pressure from the forum last year, Salem District Administration had removed the lake from the list of permitted immersion spots. “But this was of no use as more than 150 big idols were immersed in the lake,” he lamented.

These idols that were up to 20 feet high left wastes floating on the 58 acre lake.

It took two weeks for a team of 30 volunteers to remove the floating Plaster of Paris remains of the idols, their wooden base, plastic covers and flowers among other wastes from the banks of the tank. While this was close to seven tonnes, this was not the end of the cleaning process.

Even two months ago, a heavy stock of remains from these idols was removed from the tank’s bed after the lake got completely dried up. Realizing that bringing about an attitudinal change would take more years, the forum decided to make a portion of the lake available to immerse idols in a dedicated place that could be cleaned at ease. “This sounds better than cleaning the entire lake,” Piyush said.