In a bid to dissuade local residents as well as Sarvajanik Ganesh mandals from immersing Ganesh idols in the Dahisar river inside Sanjay Gandhi National Park (SGNP), the BMC along with forest department and local activists will create three artificial immersion ponds, right outside SGNP gate at Borivali. The decision was taken in a joint meeting held between the forest department, BMC, police as well as members of River March on August 7. In 2018, a small artificial pond inside SGNP was dug up just opposite to the boating pond as a pilot project. The project had received a good response. "Given the success as well as lessons learnt from last year, a decision has been taken this time to construct three artificial immersion ponds, which will be located near the new parking area that is just outside SGNP gate. We expect the location to play a major role in dissuading people from going inside SGNP for immersion," said Ramakant Biradar, Assistant Municipal Commissioner, R/Central ward. Vikram Chogle, BJP leader who has been supporting the River March movement said that last year due to the smaller size of the artificial pond they could not immerse more than 650 idols. However, this time we want to plan these ponds better, and hence, we have increased the size as well as their number to three. "Apart from this we will also have volunteers from River March along with school and college students who will stand with placards near the gate on immersion days requesting devotees to use the artificial pond and contribute in saving Dahisar river," he said adding that this year they want to reduce the number of idols being immersed in the river substantially. Gopal Jhaveri, Founder of River March, which is a citizens movement for the protection of four rivers of Mumbai said that every year thousands of idols are immersed in the boating pond which is part of the Dahisar river. "We have to ensure that not a single idol goes inside SGNP for immersion in Dahisar river," he said. Meanwhile, SGNP officials too have been urging people not to immerse idols in Dahisar river and help protect the water quality of the river. "There are several artificial ponds around SGNP and these should be used instead of natural water bodies," said a senior official. IN FIGURES

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