The devotees in the city immersed around 34,122 Ganesha idols and Hartalika in natural and artificial ponds on the one-and-a-half day of the festival. The city is celebrating its first Ganeshotsav with enthusiasm after the pandemic. The BMC said no untoward incidents were reported.
The festival will be celebrated till September 9. Traditionally, sarvajanik (public) Ganeshotsav mandals immerse the idols on the second, fifth, seventh, and 11th days of the festival. As per the data shared by BMC's disaster management cell on Thursday, devotees in the city immersed around 34,070 Ganesh idols and 52 Hartalikas at the various immersion spots.
The city has 73 natural water resources. Since the Plaster of Paris idols do not easily dissolve in the lakes, the civic body has been insisting the devotees immerse idols in the artificial ponds. The BMC has installed 162 artificials this year, compared to 173 last year.
In addition, the civic body has deployed trucks with immersion facilities and idol collection centres in all 24 wards. The immersion started in the afternoon after 12 noon. Around 710 idols were immersed in the artificial and natural ponds till 3 pm.
The maximum number of 33,962 idols immersed were household, while the remaining were those of Sarvajanik and Hartalika. 54 sarvajanik and 13,294 household idols were immersed in the artificial lakes. While there were 54 Sarvajanik and 20,600 household idols.
