Corona shrinks Mumbai's famed gigantic Ganesh idols

Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 23

The COVID-19 virus has severely impacted this year’s Ganesh festivalin Mumbai with the idols shrinking in size and celebrations moving indoors.

One of the biggest Ganesh mandals in the city, the Lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal in the Central Mumbai area of Parel, on Monday announced that it would install only a small four-foot high idol due to the pandemic.

Crowds will not be allowed to throng the pandals, and darshan will be held online, the mandal said in a statement today.

Another major mandal from Ganesh Gully nearby whose deity is called Mumbaicha Raja has also announced that it would install a smaller idol.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray had earlier this month urged the Ganesh mandals to scale down celebrations due to the pandemic. Huge crowds throng the festival venues during the 10-day festival and the immersion of the idols in the sea on the last day brings lakhs of people onto the roads where social distancing is impossible, the Chief Minister had pointed out.

The state government has announced that it would not allow public immersion of idols in Mumbai’s beaches and public places.

BrihanMumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav president Samanvay Samiti Naresh Dahibhavkar had earlier urged people to install the paper images of Ganesh instead of idols of the Lord during the pandemic.