Oct. 3: Hundreds of Durga idols have been drifting in the Hooghly since Saturday and polluting the river.

Metro cruised from Bichali ghat in the south to Ratanbabur ghat in the north, covering the city's 14 ghats, last evening.

In at least 11 ghats, there were no arrangements to lift the idols from the water immediately after immersion as mandated by Calcutta High Court.

Here's the low-down:

Dissolved idols

Almost 3,300 idols were immersed in the Hooghly till yesterday from Saturday, according to civic records.

The Baje Kadamtala and Nimtala ghats saw 1,128 immersions. Metro found that both ghats had arranged to lift the idols out of the water.

There were cranes and JCBs apart from sufficient manpower to ensure smooth and fast removal of the structures.

Idols were removed manually from the water at Gwalior ghat, which saw 900 immersions till yesterday. But the effort got washed away as the idols, kept close to the water, gradually dissolved in it.

The remaining 11 ghats had no arrangements to remove the immersed idols from the water.

At Ratanbabur ghat, Metro found people pushing the idols deeper into the water.

At Kumartuli, people dragged the idols back to the bank, possibly because of the resale value of such structures.

North vs South

Mayer ghat, Sarbamangala ghat and Bagbazar ghat in the north and Doi ghat in the south appeared like a floating garbage dump.

"I found the stretch in the north filled with partially dissolved idols," environmentalist Subhas Datta said.

The high court had passed the immersion order based on Datta's petition.

"Since 2000, the high court has been passing orders to minimise river pollution during immersion... the court has ordered that idols be removed from the water immediately after immersion," he said.

"But the order is clearly flouted as hundreds of idols float in the river and toxic material dissolves in the water."

Debasish Kumar, mayoral council member in charge of immersions, said arrangements were made at the Baje Kadamtala and Nimtala ghats to remove the immersed idols.

About the other ghats, he said civic workers were not trained to work in deep water. "We tried to make arrangements wherever possible but the river is quite deep in most of the ghats in the north... so, our people cannot work there."

The port trust should take charge of idols after immersion, a civic official said.

At present, port trust volunteers are present only at the Baje Kadamtala and Gwalior ghats.

Underutilised/unsafe

Doi ghat in the south has wide ramps but they remained underutilised.

Gwalior ghat with no ramp and a narrow staircase tops the immersion chart in terms of the number of idols.

It sees almost thrice the number of immersions at Nimtala, which possibly had the best arrangements.