10-day Ganeshotsav ends onlow-key and peaceful note

Pune: Peaceful ceremonies and in-situ rituals marked Ganapati immersions in the city on Sunday.
Roads leading to the prominent Ganapati mandals looked deserted as they were closed for vehicular traffic and pedestrians. In as Swargate, Sinhagad Road, Satara Road, Camp, small processions were arranged by a few mandals.
During the the 10-day festival, 3,493 mandals and 4,32,548 households across the city installed Ganapati idols.While major mandals kept their celebrations low-key because of the ongoing pandemic, some mandals such as Tulshibaug Ganapati Mandal and Bhau Rangari Mandal had arranged for the playing of dhol-tasha, which was stopped by the police.
Many citizens immersed their eco-friendly idols at home and quite a few mandals set up a tank beside their pandal for the ceremony.
The Shrimant Dagdusheth Halwai Ganpati Trust’s immersion ceremony was held at 6:36pm in the presence of trustees and office bearers, as devotees watched it online.
From Budhwar Peth, Shrimant Bhausaheb Rangari Ganapati Trust bid farewell to their idol with a flag salute and blowing of conch shells.
Immersion ceremonies across the city started at 7am on Sunday and went on till 11.25pm. Pune police commissioner Amitabh Gupta, said, “No untoward incidents occurred on Sunday. Everything went peacefully because of the tight bandobast.”
Over 1.71 lakh Ganesh idols immersed in makeshift tanks
Over 2.51 lakh Ganesh idols were either immersed or collected at PMC centres during the festival, the civic body said on Monday. Of these, 1.71 lakh idols were immersed in makeshift tanks. Mayor Muralidhar Mohol said residents responded well to an appeal to immerse idols at the makeshift and movable tanks.
The PMC set up 255 idol collection centres and 217 movable and makeshift tanks for immersion on the last day. Piyush Mahajan, a Kothrud resident said, “We had a clay idol, which we immersed at home.”
(Inputs by
Sarang Dastane)