Hyderabad Police, GHMC Step Up Warnings Against PoP Ganesh Idol Immersions in Hussain Sagar
Hyderabad Police and the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation have put up awareness banners across the city, cautioning devotees and Ganesh mandal organisers against immersing Plaster of Paris idols in Hussain Sagar as the festival’s immersion processions approach.
The notices point to directions from the Telangana High Court, which restrict the use of PoP idols and bar immersions at Tank Bund specifically. The court’s orders are aimed at protecting Hussain Sagar from the pollution associated with non-biodegradable materials and the chemical paints commonly used to finish PoP idols — pollutants that authorities say accumulate in the lake bed and affect water quality well after the festival season ends.
The current restrictions stem from the High Court’s 2023 directions, which said PoP idols should not be immersed in Hussain Sagar or other water bodies within Hyderabad limits, and that immersions and heavy cranes should be kept off the Upper Tank Bund side. In 2021, the Supreme Court had allowed PoP idols to be immersed in the lake only as a one-time exception, Telangana Today reported.
To manage the crowds expected during the immersion processions, civic officials are expanding the number of immersion platforms available around the lake and deploying additional cranes along Necklace Road, a step aimed at speeding up the process and reducing the bottlenecks that have marked immersion days in past years. The arrangements are concentrated on the Necklace Road shoreline so that the main immersion procession is directed away from the Upper Tank Bund.
Police have appealed directly to organisers to switch to eco-friendly idols made from clay or other biodegradable materials, and to stick to the High Court’s orders and the designated immersion points rather than improvising alternative sites along the lake’s edge. The advisory reflects a now-annual balancing act for Hyderabad’s civic and law enforcement machinery: accommodating one of the city’s largest and most visible religious festivals while enforcing environmental limits that have tightened in recent years.
