observation on pollution by ganesh festival
Answers
Impact on Environment
The Celebration of Ganesh Festival today, particularly, its immersion process has adverse effects on environment.
It causes pollution quite severely, viz. noise, water and air pollution. The present study endeavors to analyse this issue
and provide measures and recommendations for their effective communication. The detailed analysis of these 3 types
of pollution has been presented in the subsequent points as below.
Noise pollution
The firecrackers used during procession, cause noise pollution. It has adverse effect on the
health such as hearing loss (temporary or sometimes permanent), high blood pressure, heart attack and sleeping
disturbances.
The drums, music systems used during procession create noise which is very much above the normal level.
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11th International Conference on Public Communication of Science & Technology
According to D.B. Smith, 60 dB (decibels) is the normal level of noise during conversation, while 80 dB noise is
Almost in all major cities, it is approaching to 100 dB. Decrease in trend in noise level is observed in Navi
Mumbai and Aurangabad in the last 3 years. It is due to the various citizen awareness programs
and campaigns conducted by Maharashtra Pollution Control Board and other Regulatory Agencies.4 It indicates that
if communication is effective and on the larger scale, it will help in improving the situation.
Water pollution
The immersion symbolizes the return of Ganesh from the earth, after removing the obstacles and unhappiness
of his devotees. If it is a small idol (upto 1 feet height) which is made up of natural soil, it will not affect the water
after immersion. But due to giant sized idols (above 25 feet height), that too, made up of plaster of paris prove to be
hazardous to the environment. Also the material used for the decoration purpose is non-degradable that
comprises thermocol, plastic which again leads to pollution. All these factors are summarized in Table 2.
The water pollution caused by the immersion affects quite adversely the aquatic life as well. In the nutshell, it
could be stated that the immersion of innumerable idols into different water resources causes serious pollution.