Hussainsagar turns into toxic broth

Ganesh immersion: balancing sentiment and ecology on a tightrope

A Ganesha idol immersed at the Hussainsagar lake in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Hyderabad’s Khairatabad Ganesh idol is legendary for its size. This year, it towers at 57-feet. When the idol is immersed in the Hussainsagar Lake, 30 tonnes of gypsum or plaster of paris (PoP) will be added to the lake whose water is already considered so toxic that the State government had planned to drain and drudge the lake but gave up the plan in face of opposition from environmentalists. Last year, the number of idols immersed in various lakes of Hyderabad was estimated at 60,000. Most of them made of PoP and coated with bright colours.

A study revealed that the 400-year-old Hussainsagar lake is now a toxic broth of heavy metals like arsenic, lead and mercury as well as calcium, iron, magnesium, molybdenum and silicon in the lake waters due to the use of paints and varnishes on the idols.

Toxic broth

A. Vijay Kumar who has been testing the water of the Hussainsagar lake for the past 16 years estimates that 50,000 tonnes of PoP, 500 tonnes of iron and 200 tonnes of wooden planks are dumped in the lake by the end of the festival. “The PoP forms a layer of sediment which kills the lake making it impervious to water. As it is non-biodegradable the quality of water deteriorates. I have seen the number of fish decline in the lake over the last 15 years. Now, only the people visiting the toddy compound eat the fried fish from the lake,” said Mr. Kumar.

“We are helpless and cannot enforce pollution norms in the face of social and religious pressure,” said a Telangana State Pollution Control Board official. This year the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation made a big push towards clay idols launching an awareness campaign and distributing a limited number of free clay idols to citizens.

“We have distributed 2.25 lakh clay idols which have been installed in residences and apartment complexes. But bigger idols are the norm at road junctions and bigger colonies. Next year, we are planning a workshop of artisans to dissuade them from using PoP and synthetic paints,” says Bonthu Rammohan, the mayor of Hyderabad. The civic body is walking a tightrope balancing religious sentiments and environmental concerns. It has constructed smaller ponds besides bigger lakes for immersions.

“The smaller ponds are not just reducing the size of bigger lakes but the PoP sediment taken out from the lake doesn’t mix with soil and wherever it is spread, that piece of land becomes infertile,” says Lubna Sarwath of Save Our Urban Lakes.