The Effect of Ganesh Idol Immersion on the Water Quality of Gorai Jetty, Mumbai the Environmental Health Perspective

Water is one of the most important substances on earth. All plants and animals must have water to survive. If there was no water there would be no life on earth. Various factors play a part in this worrying state of affairs in India, such as dumped industrial and household waste and open defecation. But a surprisingly high level of pollution comes from religious ceremonies. The Ganesh festival is one of the biggest festivals in Mumbai. These idols are made up of non biodegradable materials like plaster of Paris PoP and synthetic paints used are also a major source of contamination and sedimentation. This can pose a serious threat to water quality and the flora and fauna the festival also generates a large amount of holy waste Nirmalya in the form of flowers, decoration materials, oil and other religious offerings. After the festival the Ganesha idols are immersed at the various beaches and lakes and creeks across the Mumbai city. To assess the water quality, the water samples were collected from Gorai creek before and after the Ganapati immersion and analysed for different physico chemical parameters. The parameters like pH, Temperature, DO, COD, Chloride, Sulphate, turbidity etc. were studied to find out the effect of idol immersion on quality of water. It has been observed that the values of some parameters were significantly increased during the immersion period and then declined in the post immersion period. Dr. Pradnya A. Lokhande ""The Effect of Ganesh Idol Immersion on the Water Quality of Gorai Jetty, Mumbai - the Environmental Health Perspective"" Published in International Journal of Trend in Scientific Research and Development (ijtsrd), ISSN: 2456-6470, Volume-3 | Issue-3 , April 2019, URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/papers/ijtsrd22806.pdf Paper URL: https://www.ijtsrd.com/chemistry/environmental-chemistry/22806/the-effect-of-ganesh-idol-immersion-on-the-water-quality-of-gorai-jetty-mumbai---the-environmental-health-perspective/dr-pradnya-a-lokhande