For the 1st time post revival of Agara Lake the Ganesha immersion in the newly built Kalyani was facilitated. No doubt that festivals are a tough time for civic agencies and not just waste management but also security, crowd management, cleaning, traffic and ensuring the water bodies are not impacted is very critical. Agara Lake Protection and Management Society and Forest Department decided to plan the immersion activity at the Kalyani along with BBMP, Traffic Police and Law & Order Police much in advance, and a process was put in place. Information Banners, Security at all the other three gate of Agara Lake to divert all immerions to gate-3 (Kalyani gate) and temporary barricades built from gate-3 leading upto the Kalyani, Volunteers, Fishermen and additional Staff were pulled in to ensure a smooth process and to control any unruly crowd.
1st day, ie on 13th Sept there were around 211 idols and finally till 19th Sept a total of over 1372+ Ganesha idols and equal number of Gowri idols were immersed! With an entry of all idols, location and type (Clay/POP) it gave a fair idea that there were very few POP idols. BBMP helped in the daily clearance of the pooja waste and hopefully the mud in the Kalyani will also be removed by BBMP in the coming days. 'More awareness has to be create to make festivals more Eco-friendly and a lot more has to be done by BBMP and KSPCB to stop sales of POP idols, eventually localize immersion and end pollution of water bodies' added Kavitha Reddy, Lake Activist and KPCC Spokesperson.