In the wake COVID scare, a large number of Patnaites have decided that they will remain confined to their houses even though the Ganga continues to attract lakhs of devotees during the four-day Chhath festivities. They will worship and perform the rituals by setting and rising sun from makeshift water bodies created on rooftops or in courtyards.

The district administration has also issued strict guidelines for observing Chhath rituals at Ganga ghats with social distancing and other preventive measures. Hence, the responsible citizens will avoid taking any risk by visiting the overcrowded ghats.

Moreover, due to the ever-increasing shift in the course of the Ganga at different ghats in the city, devotees find it very difficult to trek the large distance for reaching the river water. Although the shifting of a river course is a natural phenomenon, it has become more pronounced during the last three decades, says Geological Survey of India’s retired director Narbadeshwar Dayal.

Earlier, the devotees used to visit the nearest ponds of their localities and perform Chhath rituals, but most of them have either been reduced to waste disposal dumps or overtaken by human settlements.
Old-timers recall that Netaji Subhash Park on the south-eastern side of Gandhi Maidan, Indira Gandhi Planetarium near the Kotwali police station, Vaishali Cinema below the Rajendra Nagar overbridge, A G office near Sultan Palace on Beer Chand Patel Path, and the entire Saidpur Complex of Patna University behind Moin-ul-Haq Stadium are all sites of “dead water bodies”.

“Chhath devotees miss these water bodies for performing the rituals,” says environmentalist Mehta Nagendra Singh.

Most of the existing ponds in different localities are not clean enough for the devotees. According to some recent studies made by the students of Patna University’s environmental science department, most ponds located in Anisabad, Gardanibagh and Patna City areas are filled with municipal wastes, making their water unfit for domestic purposes. Hence, very few people want to visit these ponds, especially during the pandemic.

In recent years, the district administration as well as some voluntary organizations started organizing mass Chhath rituals in different localities by creating artificial ponds. One such makeshift pond has been constructed near Panchmukhi Temple on Boring Canal Road where hundreds of devotees will offer ‘arghya’ to the setting and rising sun this year. Similar ponds have been constructed at Kankarbagh, Gardanibagh and other places.

However, several devotees will still offer ‘arghya’ to the sun from artificial water bodies constructed on their rooftops. “We have been performing Chhath rituals at home for several years and will do it this year too,” says Anali Prasad, a resident of Anandpuri.

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