Immersion of large sized images of lord Vinayaka will not be allowed in the sea off Pattinapakkam this weekend as has been the practice for some years now.
Chennai Corporation has agreed to ask people to head to Ennore or to Kovalam for this purpose.
This move follows a decision by the National Green Tribunal in Chennai which said that this practice was against Coastal Regulated Zone regulations and could not be allowed and that GCC must look for alternate sites for the immersion.
This practice has affected the Pattinapakkam sands in many ways – civic contractors would dump construction waste on the beach to create a pathway from the road to the shore.
Parts of the Vinayaka images would be washed up on the shore even after they were immersed into the sea using cranes. Hundreds of civic workers were deployed here to clear the waste.
Though the temporary pathway would be cleared after the immersion – the images were transported in over 200 carts/ lorries from the south and central part of the city -, the sands were not the same again.
- File photo used here
