Is there no solution for eco-friendly disposal of Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols during festivals? This question prevailed as the Government guidelines regarding safe and environment friendly disposal of PoP idols after Ganeshotsav remained on papers only as local administrations failed to come out with a conclusion for its scientific disposal this year. Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) conducted a meeting with CSIR-NEERI and Institute of Engineers before the commencement of the festival to find out a scientific way to dispose PoP idols after visarjan. However, the meeting ended with no conclusion as the Government-run research institutes failed to provide a foolproof solution for the issue to NMC. As a result, NMC disposed of all 9,463 collected PoP idols into abandoned quarries situated outside the city limits. “NEERI and Institute of Science advised us to use sodium bicarbonate (baking powder) to dissolve Ganesh idols made of PoP on an experimental basis this year.

 

However, in 2016, we did this experiment on PoP idols in Sakkardara but majority of idols remained intact,” Dr Gajendra Mahalle, Senior Sanitation Officer, NMC to The Hitavada. “NMC kept the PoP idols into sodium bicarbonate for 2-3 days. Instead of dissolving it the chemicals started releasing bad odour which was unbearable for nearby residents. So, we did not do it this year,” claimed the officer. This year, total 1.62 lakh idols were immersed in 419 artificial tanks in city in which 1.52 lakh idols were made up of clay and remaining 9,463 idols were PoP. According to a NMC senior officer, following the guidelines of Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) for crushing the PoP idols and make it powder form is not possible as it will hurt the sentiments of many. Meanwhile, research institutes should come forward with a proper solution to dispose PoP idols in eco-friendly manner. “Government is still not ready to accept the fact that eco-friendly disposal of Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols during Ganesh Visarjan is not possible as PoP is non-biodegradable and release harmful chemicals into water bodies,” said the senior officer.

 

Dr Anjali Rahatgaonkar, the than Acting Director of Institute of Science, who also attended the meeting, said, “There is an utmost need to do research on extraction of heavy metals from PoP idols as it is yet to be explored by researchers. In the meeting we gave some solutions to the Municipal Commissioner and he directed to initiate the project.” Reuse of PoP idols after visarjan is possible. We are capable to extract calcium carbonate from the idols completely but for heavy metals it require more research, said Dr Rahatgaonkar. “National Chemical Laboratory (NCL), Pune developed a technique in which the PoP an be reused in form of plastering purpose for broken human body parts. On that context we advised NMC to initiate a project to reuse PoP extracted from artificial tanks after visarjan. But we did not got the project which was supposed to be implemented this year,” claimed a researcher who was part of the meeting.

 

“Due to lifting of blanket ban on POP idols, this year, percentage of PoP idols have increased significantly. Now, the real challenge for NMC is, handling these PoP idols. It does not get dissolved and also contains heavy metal, which has significant polluting potential. MPCB and government organisations and research institutes involved in research and development can guide NMC with a full proof plan. If the ban is not implemented again, next year it will be a bigger challenge,” said Mehul Kosurkar, Deputy Team Lead, Green Vigil Foundation and the representative of GVF in the meeting.