Fourteen persons drowned and six others died in different incidents across Maharashtra during the immersion of Ganesh idols on Friday, police said on Saturday.
The idols were immersed as the 10-day Ganesh festival, which started on August 31, ended on Ananthachaturdashi on Friday.
Sharing further details, police said, four persons drowned in Wardha district – three at Sawangi and one at Devli, while two died in a similar manner in Yavatmal district during the immersion of an idol.
Similar incidents were reported from Ahmednagar district where two persons drowned in separate incidents at Supa and Belvandi, and other two died in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra - one each at Chalisgaon and Jamner.
According to the police, one person each died at Ghodegaon and Yavat in Pune district, in Dhule, Lonikand in Satara district and Solapur city.
Meanwhile, four persons died in a road accident at Sakkardara area in Nagpur during Ganesh immersion, and a 55-year-old woman was killed and four others injured after a tree collapsed on a Ganesh pandal in Kolbad area of Thane, due to heavy rains on Friday.
Officials said that a huge tree uprooted and fell on the pandal while the locals were performing aarti of Lord Ganesh's idol before taking out the immersion procession. The woman, Rajashri Walavalkar, was seriously injured in the accident and succumbed to her injuries on her way to the hospital. She was pronounced brought dead by the duty doctor.
Further, the officials said that 11 persons, including a nine-month-old child, were injured after suffering an electric shock at Wadghar Koliwada of Panvel in Raigad district during a procession after a cable of an electric generator snapped.
Clashes
Mild tension prevailed at Tophkhana in Ahmednagar district after a scuffle broke out between the supporters of Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde and Shiv Sena president Uddhav Thackeray during the immersion procession. While at Jalgaon, a group of people hurled stones at the mayor's bungalow during the Ganesh immersion procession and a clash broke out between two groups at Mundhwa in Pune.
No untoward incidents in Mumbai
However, the 10-day Ganesh festival and the immersion procession passed off peacefully without any untoward incidents in Mumbai.
“#GaneshUtsav2022 in Mumbai conducted & celebrated peacefully, smoothly & enthusiastically. I thank all the Mumbaikars, Members of all the Ganesh Mandals & all the Lord Ganesha's devotees, who followed all instructions & cooperated with us, the MUMBAI POLICE!,” the Mumbai police tweeted.
High noise level
Meanwhile, a city-based organisation revealed on Saturday that noise levels recorded in Mumbai during the last day of the Ganpati festival reached a two-year high, at 120 dB.
According to the data shared by NGO Awaaz Foundation, the highest noise level 120.2dB was recorded at Opera House in south Mumbai after midnight on Friday. They said that the music was stopped after a complaint was raised on Twitter to the Mumbai police. While, the second highest noise level of 118 dB was recorded at Shastri Nagar, where people played the drums, metal cylinders and loudspeakers, while 106dB was recorded at Girgaon Chowpatty, where idols were immersed, the data revealed.
In 2019, the city witnessed the noisiest visarjan at 121.3 dB, followed by 100.7 dB in 2020 and 93.1dB in 2021.
