Save the park, conserve energy at one go

Today when pollution is taking a serious toll on our health, parks and playgrounds are increasingly looked upon as the lungs of a locality in Kolkata. Everyday, inch by inch of our city is being encroached by the real estate mafias commonly called the promoters. Nowadays it is hard to see the clear blue skies from the tall buildings that has mushroomed every in nook and corner of the city. It is also hard to inhale fresh air from any given locality as large amount of trees are felled for construction purpose.

But, unfortunately even the parks and playgrounds that are looked upon as small land of bliss are also attracting the attention of local hooligans, miscreants and gundas for their unethical and illegal works. These parks and playgrounds generally attract young and old, men and women, mostly during the early hours of morning and evening. These people visit such places either for playing, meeting each other or for physical exercise. But these places become deserted soon after darkness fall and this gives the notorious elements the chance to carry out their illegal works.

Now to safeguard these parks and playgrounds and also to protect the locality from any possible threat from such elements, the local authorities and the KMC has jointly come up with a plan to illuminate these parks and playgrounds during night.

This is undoubtedly a very good initiative from the civic authorities, and in fact this step has encouraged the local people to venture out in the parks and playgrounds even after dark. But in this process the authorities has overlooked that they also have the responsibility of conserving energy. Normally, to illuminate such big parks there is need of big mercury or halogen lights that consume huge amount of electrical energy. Now there are some authorities who would prefer to use more such powerful lights than needed just to beautify the place extraordinarily. Thus in this process they fail to remember the fact that lots of energy is going into waste.

If they had used these lights with little sense then they could have saved lot of energy and in turn could have addressed the larger issue of power shortage in Kolkata. Other than just planting huge halogen lights in the parks whimsically, the civic authorities can consider such lights that save energy and at the same time produce sufficient light enough to illuminate a park or a playground. They can also make use of solar power lights, which are not only environmental friendly but are also effective in illumination.

Unplanned Durga immerson

After five days of joyous festivity, Goddess Uma or Durga returns to her abode in heaven leaving behind her paternal home on earth. Durga’s coming home ushers in the grand festival of Durga Puja in Bengal and also in other parts of India. Also known as Sharadiya Utsav, this festival starts from Saptami with a holy ritual called Bodhon and ends with Bijoya Dasami when the idol of Ma Durga along with the other idols of her son (Ganesh and Kartik) and daughters (Saraswati and Lakkhi) are immersed in the holy river Ganga as part of the age old Vedic ritual and custom.

Ten to twelve years back there was no issue with the immersion of the clay idol in the river Ganga. But in the recent past, with the voice of the environmentalist gaining ground there has been a huge cry about the pollution of Ganga due to such practice. The environmentalist in this case has a strong reason, which is also scientifically proven. The fact is there are many hazardous chemicals present in the paints that are used in the clay models to enhance their beauty and lustre. These chemicals are very strong and reactive to water. When the clay models are immersed in the water within few minutes the chemicals start mixing with the water and pollute the water.

Ganga being the oldest and one of the most perennial rivers in India has a special significance. Ganga water is daily used by millions of Indians in different ways. Ganga also support large amount of aquatic life. Therefore the pollutions of this river make all these life vulnerable to various kind of disease that can also prove fatal. After lots of debate and argument, the KMC finally stepped in to take few measures to prevent such crisis. According to Fayaz Ahemed Khan, Counselor, Kolkata Municipal Corporation, KMC has arranged for cages on both sides of these ghats. They also have volunteers who will approach those coming for immersion of idols not to throw flowers or other articles or belongings of idols in the water of Ganga.

These measures are showing some results but lot is yet to be done. The KMC and the Durga puja organisers need to sit and chalk out a comprehensive plan how to solve the problem. Most of the responsibility lies with the puja organisers as they need to be more careful with their job. Often the idol makers complain that they are ready to use eco-friendly colours to paint the idols, but that increases the cost of the idol to a great extent, which even the big puja organisers are not ready to pay. This is an unfortunate and callous behaviour on part of the organisers who spend lakhs of rupees on pandal decoration, lighting and cultural program, but is not ready to pay the extra money to save Ganga. KMC on its part also have to be more stringent with their laws and penalties.

Even then this problem will persist. As not all Durga idols are immersed in Ganga and in the Babu, Princep, Bichali ghat etc., instead they are immersed in the several big ponds and lakes to be found across Kolkata and its surrounding suburbs. Many puja organisers reluctantly immerse the idols in such water bodies, which also run the risk of water pollution due to the same hazardous chemicals. Amazingly no one talks about this. It is true that the importance of Ganga in comparison to these small water bodies is immense, but at the same time that fact that these water bodies are also used by many people for bathing, washing clothes, cleaning utensils and even drinking (especially by the section below poverty level) also cannot be ignored.

KMC and the puja organisers also take some pain to think about this issue. This may not concern mass section of the society but definitely the human beings who live and breathe around us.