Civic employees remove the flowers dumped after Durga immersions at Babughat. Last year, these used flowers were recycled into fertiliser and scented colours. Picture by Bishwarup Dutta

Several tonnes of flowers used during Durga puja this year could not be recycled because of a communication gap between Jadavpur University and the civic authorities of Howrah and Calcutta.

Last year, the chemical engineering department of the university had collected around four truckloads of flowers after the Puja from Prinsep ghat and Babughat. They were later recycled into perfumed liquid colours and fertilisers.

The department has a plant in Howrah where the recycling is carried out.

“Last year, we were allowed to collect flowers after the Puja from the Hooghly. This year, too, we had asked both the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) and the Howrah Municipal Corporation (HMC), but they did not respond,” said Siddhartha Datta, professor in the university’s chemical engineering department.

In the absence of a communique from the civic bodies, the department collected about a truckload of flowers directly from the Puja committees. “We had asked some Puja committees to hand over the used flowers to us,” Datta said.

The CMC and the HMC, however, denied having been approached by the university for the used flowers. “We did not receive any letter from them,” said Arun Sarkar, chief engineer, conservancy, CMC.

Howrah mayor Gopal Mukherjee, too, said: “The university did not approach us.”

Sources in the corporation said there was no need to take permission from the authorities to collect flowers from the immersion ghats. “Even last year, the university did not take our consent,” said an official.

Whatever be the reason, the flowers that could have otherwise been recycled were dumped. “Last year, we had made 100 kg of fertilisers from flowers collected from the immersion ghats. This year, the production will go down to about 20 kg,” Datta added.

An official of the environment department said: “It’s unfortunate that a large amount of flowers will be wasted. We could have extracted bio-fertilisers from them. This is detrimental to the environment.”