India has been celebrating Ganeshotsav, the festival of Lord Ganesha since September 2, 2019. Amidst the festivities comes the havoc wreaked by pollution, which the environmentalists try to warn us against every year. The aftermath of Ganpati Visarjan is extremely outrageous, and this year’s was nothing new. Even after so many instances of pollution impacting marine and human lives, people are yet to learn their lessons. Images of post Visarjan scenes of garbage and plastic waste in abundance have once again gone viral. It's horrifying, but nothing what we haven't seen before. The upsetting sights show the irresponsibility of the citizens who are ruining the beaches and rivers and marine lives. Ganesh Chaturthi 2019 Eco-Friendly Ganesh Idols: From Coconut to Aloe Vera, This Year Bappa Turns Green. 

Ganesh Chaturthi 2019 began on September 2 and Ganeshotsav will be celebrated till September 11. The festival will end with the immersion day of Bappa’s idols on Anant Chaturdashi, which falls on the next day. As of now, one and a half-day, three-day, five-day Gauri Ganpati and seven-day Ganpati visarjans have been performed. Grand processions take place where Ganesha idols are taken to large water bodies for immersion. And every year, a large amount of degradable (flowers, fruits and food) and non degradable (plastics) wastes are generated during visarjans.

The viral images and videos show vast amounts of waste generated from the ten-day long festival. From flowers, fruits, incense sticks stuffed in polythene bags, idols made out of POP  have all found their way into local water bodies.

Post the Seventh Day Ganesh Visarjan Shared by Bollywood Actress Sonali Bendre:

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A lot of organisations and environment enthusiasts are initiating post visarjan beach clean-ups to stop these harmful materials from ruining water bodies and endangering sea animals. Despite increased awareness and spike in the number of eco-friendly Ganpati Bappas, we still have long way to go. And these images and videos stress on the need to be more environmentally responsible than ever before.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 09, 2019 05:17 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).