Ganesh Utsav is a favorite among Mumbaikars. It is a festival that brings life to all the corners and streets of Mumbai. With the ten-day-long festival of Ganesh Chaturthi coming to an end with Ganapati Visarjan, the level of pollution has considerably increased. Prabhadevi beach is one such prominent stretch in the city that becomes extremely polluted after the immersion of Ganesh idols.

The NSS unit of Sahyog Pratishthan’s Sahyog College of Management Studies, Thane embarked on another endeavor outside the campus by participating in a beach clean-up organized at Prabhadevi Beach. The event was organized on 11^th September 2022. The beach clean-up was in collaboration with Eco Army, an NGO focusing on environment restoration. The campaign saw the participation of 25 NSS volunteers. Within three hours, all the members filled the garbage bags and even some extra bags with waste. All the wastes were then dumped at a common place and then segregated into dry and organic wastes respectively. A total of 2.5 tons of waste along with 25 Ganapati idols were collected. After some time, people from the BMC’s cleaning department came and collected all the waste in their trucks and took it for proper disposal. The idols of Lord Ganesha were separated from the garbage and kept away separately. In the end, the amount of garbage retrieved from the little portion of the beach was amazing. This event aimed to highlight the fact that the common man is also responsible for keeping the environment clean and pollution-free, and not just the BMC.

With the ten-day-long festival of Ganesh Chaturthi coming to end with Ganpati Visarjan, the level of pollution has considerably increased. Juhu beach is one such prominent stretch in the city that becomes extremely polluted after the immersion of Ganesh idols. For the past few years, civic authorities of the city have been requesting the devotees to dump Ganesh’s idols, made of toxic and non-soluble material, in dustbins kept specifically for the purpose so that it could be easily disposed of later but in vain. Most of the debris comprises flowers, plastic bags, garlands, and sweet offerings made of the Hindu god by hundreds of devotees. The event was organized on the 5th of September at Juhu Beach. In spite of heavy rains and reporting time as 6 am, there was active participation by all the members. The volunteers participating in the initiative were provided with gloves for protection and garbage bags for the collection of waste. The members started cleaning the allotted piece of land. Within an hour, all the members filled the garbage bags and even some extra bags with waste. All the wastes were then dumped at a common place and then segregated into dry and organic wastes respectively. After some time, people from the BMC’s cleaning department came and collected all the waste in their trucks and took it for proper disposal. The idols of Lord Ganesha were separated from the garbage and kept away separately. At the end the amount of garbage retrieved from the little portion of the beach was amazing. The event ended within 2 hours and the allotted patch of land was cleared completely. This event saw the highest turnout of around 100 NSS members with a large amount of participation by the Second Year students. This event aimed to highlight the fact that the common man is also responsible for keeping the environment clean and pollution-free, and not just the BMC.