The Southern Bench of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) has directed Tamil Nadu authorities to fix the fee to be collected from persons seeking permission to immerse Vinayaka idols in designated waterbodies during the Vinayaka Chathurti festival so that the burden of cleaning and restoring the waterbodies is borne by associations or individuals who are permitted to immerse the idols.
Based on an analysis of the water samples collected by the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board before and after the idol immersion, the Bench, comprising Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana and expert member Satyagopal Korlapati, noted that wherever large idols were immersed, especially in urban areas, the fresh waterbodies were polluted.
