Ganpati festivities culminated on Sunday with lakhs of devotees bidding farewell to the adorable elephant-headed god they consecrated and worshipped for ten days, while at least nine persons drowned and 12 were missing in various incidents related to immersion of idols in Maharashtra.
These incidents were reported from Thane, Pune, Nanded, Nashik, Jalgaon, Washim, Palghar, and Amravati districts, officials said on Sunday.
Some processions stretched more than 24 hours in Mumbai and Pune.
The immersion of Mumbai’s iconic Lalbaugcha Raja idol was delayed for several hours due to high tide and technical challenges involving the mechanised raft.
According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, 1,97,114 Ganesh idols were immersed during the 11-day festival, including 1,81,375 household idols, 10,148 public mandal idols, and 5,591 idols of Gauri and Hartalika.
Of them, the maximum 60,434 idols were immersed after one and a half days of the festival, 40,230 on the fifth day, 59,704 on the seventh day, and 36,746 on the last day of the festival.
Of the 36,746 idols immersed on the last day, 5,937 were of Sarvajanik Mandals, 30,490 of household Ganesh, and 319 were of goddess Gauri, the BMC said.
Some processions stretched more than 24 hours in Mumbai and Pune.
Lalbaugcha Raja idol was finally immersed in the Arabian Sea at around 9:15 pm on Sunday, more than 12 hours after it arrived at Girgaon Chowpatty, the designated immersion point in the southern part of the metropolis, officials said.
Amid chants from thousands of devotees gathered at the beach, drum beats, and bursting of crackers, a specially constructed raft pulled by fishermen’s boats escorted by police teams took the idol into the deep sea and immersed it, officials said.
It was among the most delayed immersions of the idol, which set out for the sea over 32 hours earlier from Lalbaug at 12:30 pm on Saturday, they added. Generally, the Lalbaugcha Raja idol is immersed in the Arabian Sea before 9 am.
In Pune, Ganpati immersion processions concluded after more than 32 hours on Sunday despite the coordinated efforts made by the police to ensure an early culmination.
The processions, which began around 9:30 AM on Anant Chaturdashi on Saturday, concluded at 6 PM on Sunday.
More than 3,959 big idols of Ganesh pandals and over 7.45 lakh household idols were immersed in various water bodies, officials said.
The immersion processions were not without accidents, including drowning and an incident of electrocution in Mumbai city.
In Pune district, five persons were swept away in different water bodies in three separate incidents, an official said.
“Two men were swept away in the Bhama river at Waki Khurd and one at Shell Pimpalgaon. Another person slipped into a well at Birwadi in the rural part of the district. A 45-year-old man was swept away at Khed,” the Pune official said.
Bodies of three persons were recovered, he added.
Three persons were swept away in a river in Gandegaon in Nanded district, one of whom was rescued some time later, a local official said.
A search was on for the other two, Nanded police said.
Similar incidents occurred in Sinnar and Kalwan talukas in Nashik district.
“Five persons were swept away in Nashik. The bodies of two persons have been recovered, while efforts are on to trace the others,” the official said.
Three persons were swept away in Jalgaon in separate incidents, the official said.
Three men from Mundewadi in Thane’s Shahapur taluka were swept away in the strong currents of the Bhargavi river near a dam. They were returning after immersing a Ganpati idol, Shahapur Tehsildar Parmeshwar Kasule said.
He identified the persons as Datta Lote, Pratip Munde, and Kuldeep Jakare.
“The bodies of Lote and Munde have been retrieved. The search for Jakare is underway,” the tehsildar said.
In Palghar district, three men who were swept away in a creek during Ganpati idol immersion were saved with the help of a Ro-Ro boat after a quick alert from maritime authorities, officials said on Sunday.
The incident took place at around 3 pm on Saturday at Narangi jetty in Virar (West), they said.
Two persons drowned in Washim district, a local official said, adding the body of one of them has been recovered.
One man drowned in Amravati, as per the police. His body was retrieved by the disaster management team.
In Mumbai city, where immersion processions extend several hours, a man died of electrocution and five other individuals sustained injuries, civic officials said.
The incident occurred on Khairani Road in the Sakinaka area on Sunday morning when a Ganesh idol came into contact with a hanging electric wire.
Amid continuous rainfall in Maharashtra, state disaster response teams and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) personnel have been deployed, officials said.
In neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, two teenage boys drowned after falling into a stream during the immersion of an idol of Lord Ganesh in Raisen district.
The BMC, meanwhile, collected 508 tonnes of ‘nirmalya’ (floral offerings) from natural water bodies and more than 290 artificial ponds following the immersion of idols of Lord Ganesh and goddess Gauri.
The BMC launched a large-scale cleaning operation across beaches and other sites after the 11-day festival concluded with Anant Chaturdashi, a day before.
The civic body had promoted the use of artificial ponds for idol immersions, and Mumbai residents responded positively, it said.
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