SHIVANI SINGH

It’s that time of the year. Time to look forward to misty mornings, early evenings, festivities, food, celebrations, holidays. And by the end of it, a littered cityscape, a dirtier river, and stubborn air pollution that will refuse to subside till the end of winter.

Yes, it is that time of the year when along with ads on festival discounts, newspapers are awash with public advisories on the ills of chemical-laced idol immersions and bursting of crackers. Every year, this pitch falls on deaf ears.

Hundreds of half-melted chunks of Ganesha idols are still floating around in the Yamuna. Since last month, their noxious chemicals have made the polluted waters more poisonous. This week, the Durga Puja will culminate in hundreds of immersions into the Yamuna.

The air will not be spared either. Last Diwali, fireworks fouled up Delhi’s air so much that it broke three years’ pollution record. The thick smog was compared to the world’s worst, leaving people gasping for breath for days on end.

For a culture that reveres its rivers, mountains, trees, animals and the earth, how did Indian festivals become so reckless?

There is no tradition of using chemicals and heavy metals in idol making. On the contrary, customs specify clay and straw as the main ingredient, and that too for a reason.

Clay gives form to the formless and dissolves with immersion, merging with the elements and thus, completing the circle of life.

But now with idol-making reaching an industrial scale,