Devotees in Mumbai bid farewell on Wednesday to the favored elephant-headed Hindu god Ganesh after a ten day competition to rejoice his beginning.
Big-sized Ganesh idols had been paraded by way of the streets earlier than their ritual immersion within the sea to mark the pure cycle of creation and dissolution.
Worshippers sang hymns and danced in processions carrying small Ganesh idols, or ferried towering statues of the deity in vehicles embellished with garlands of marigolds and roses.
Throughout the annual 10-day competition, Hindu households worship Ganesh, the god of information, knowledge and success, at their properties and collectively in road corners.
All Hindu prayers start with an invocation to Ganesh.
“Seeing the latest scenario within the nation, the rapes, the disasters that are occurring, we solely pray that God frees Mumbai of all these. That is all we would like.” mentioned one worshipper, Santosh Jadhav.
A younger photojournalist was just lately gang raped in Mumbai, a case harking back to the deadly gang rape of a younger college scholar within the Indian capital in December that shocked the nation.
This yr’s celebrations happened amid tight safety.
Many worshippers are involved in regards to the environmental affect of immersing hundreds of poisonous statues within the sea, particularly on marine life.
Tens of hundreds of idols are immersed in Mumbai alone.
Idol fragments, made largely of plastic and gypsum plaster, wash up on shores and poisonous chemical substances from the paints pollute waters and poison fish.
This yr the town authorities supplied synthetic ponds for the symbolic immersion of smaller Ganesh idols.
Among the many converts to eco-friendly immersion is Rajesh Khakkar, a staunch Ganesh devotee.
“Many individuals nonetheless immerse Ganesh idols within the sea, and this may destroy marine life. That is why we thought why not do that new method and make it a practice,” he mentioned.
Persons are additionally experimenting with clay and papier-mache idols which dissolve in water.
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