Salem forum sees red as lake turns black after idol immersion

“In the last one week, a large number of idols were immersed in the dug-up pond and its water has turned black,” said the members of the forum. The forum has moved the court seeking judicial intervention to analyse the extent of damage, to revive the lake and to ensure that no harmful paints will be used on the idols from next year.

“Last week we dug a pond at one side of the lake to facilitate immersion of idols after Chathurthi. We had decided to remove wastes after the immersion ended,” said Piyush Manush, coordinator of the forum. Members of the forum were shocked to see that water in the pond had turned black when paint applied on idols began to mix with the water. 

“The bund we made for the pond has now clearly separated clean water and the contaminated water,” Piyush said. Stating that the Supreme Court, Madras High Court and the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB) have a set of norms for making such idols to prevent polluting water bodies in their petition to the court, with the Salem City Police Commissioner and top TNPCB officials as respondents, he has asked if they had taken them into consideration.

The environmental activist pointed out that police grant permission for installing hundreds of idols but they should also coordinate with the TNPCB about the number of idols and place of installation so that the officials could check if the idols were in compliance with the norms,” he suggested. 

His petition sought appointment of an advocate commissioner, under whose supervision TNPCB officials should collect water samples from the artificial pond that has turned black and come out with a white paper report on it. 

He also pressed for cleaning up the water as it would contaminate another water body if it was pumped out and drained and urged the court to direct the authorities to check pollution of water bodies due to immersion of idols. Judicial Magistrate-IV of Salem posted it for hearing later on Friday evening.