Into the Hooghly goes Durga, finery, flowers and all, at Babughat, creating pollution in the river and on its bank. Picture by Pabitra Das

It’s time Calcutta learnt a lesson or two from Chandernagore in minimising pollution of the Hooghly during immersion.

Immersion of Jagaddhatri idols is a mega event in Chandernagore — spread over two days — similar to the immersion of Durga idols in Calcutta. Around 200 Jagaddhatri idols, most of them 20 ft high or more, are immersed in the Hooghly.

But unlike Calcutta, which fails to check the immersion impact on the river, the Hooghly district town has been setting an example since 2004 in keeping the river clean after the ritual.

“This has become possible thanks to a high level of people participation and proper planning and execution,” said Amiya Das, the mayor of the Chandernagore Municipal Corporation.

The clean-immersion campaign was started by a local club, Sabujer Abhijan, under the leadership of Biswajit Mukherjee, the senior law officer of the state environment department, and a Chandernagore resident.

“We thought about the drive after the state pollution control board passed an order asking all concerned to ensure an environment-friendly immersion. The response was subdued in the first year but gathered momentum from 2005,” said Mukherjee.

“Chandernagore has two ghats for immersion. Each idol is assigned a number and the organisers are told about the time when it will be immersed and in which ghat,” said Kunal Sen of Sabujer Abhijan.

Once an idol arrives at a ghat, the flowers, leaves and other puja items are disposed of in an closed area. Civic workers soon remove the items, with the biodegradable ones being used for preparing manure.

“As soon as the idols are immersed, the wooden structures are cut off and brought onto the ghats. The hay, ropes and other materials with which the idols are made are next removed by volunteers from both Hindu and Muslim communities. A few volunteers are stationed in boats to collect the litter that drifts away with the tide,” said Mukherjee.

The volunteers include students, NGO workers, members of local labour organisations and even “common citizens”, said Sen.

In contrast, volunteers and workers hired by the Calcutta Municipal Corporation never get into the water to clear the immersion mess. The task is left to a handful of local people, who collect the items to resell them. “There is also no large-scale clean-up of the river after immersion,” said a civic official.

Mayor Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya had recently said that he would move the high court to ban immersions in the Hooghly.

“Stopping immersion in the river is not a solution. The authorities should rather consider implementing the Chandernagore model. Efforts should also be made to barricade a part of the river near the ghats so the litter doesn’t flow away with the tide,” said environmentalist Subhas Dutta, who is also a member of the high court-appointed Ganga Pollution Monitoring Committee.