Ganesh Visarjan, 2016 – Surat taking small but firm steps towards resilience…..

Every year, Ganesh Visarjan has been that day for the city that challenges authorities in several ways. From the issue of handling traffic to issue of immersion of POP statues of Ganeshji….the high number of statues and whooping population, makes the authorities work round the clock, one day before and after the holy ceremony, and yet the issues remain….

This year, for the first time it was different.

Image courtesy -  Mr Dhruv Parmar

For the first time, all vehicles carrying heavy or light Ganeshji statues were given specific routes. This is done every year though, but this time, the trucks and vehicles remained in the slow traffic lane, keeping one lane clear for routine traffic of cars and two wheeler most of the time.  Thousands of litres of fuel were saved due to this. Time saved. And the city air was spared from toxic vehicular emissions of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide. And all it took was a simple thing. a simple understanding.

In almost every municipal zone of the city, there were artificial lakes created for the immersion of POP statues. The capacities of these lakes were different. This time, these lakes served the purpose. And Varacha Zone of the city most actively participated in this act of using artificial lakes, as per a newspaper today. The aquatic life of our Tapi and sea was saved to a great extent due to this step from the harmful effects of POP.

Of course there were issues and exceptions. The stalls distributing drinks and free food packets used plastic bags. The users, people displayed the same old behavior of ‘NOT CARING’ and the entire area near such food stalls, was covered with plastic waste of bags and disposable glasses. This brings us to the same old answer to the same old issue – public participation. The lack of sense of belongingness for the city and environment has already been discussed here several times.

Image courtesy for both above images -  Author

Thanks to the efforts of the authorities and SMC, by the following morning, that is today morning, most of these plastic waste was collected and taken care of.

One can only hope that this would not be repeated next year. This would help us improve ourselves. This year, we have seen fresh new signs of resilience with blessing from Ganeshji….we could only hope for the things to become better in coming years.

Himanshu (Arjun) Padhya