Freak accidents mark end of Ganesh Chaturthi; 30 deaths in Maharashtra

Mumbai, Sep 25: India's one of the biggest public festival, Ganesh Chaturthi has just come to an end after being celebrated for 11 days, starting from September 13. The festival saw millions of Ganesha idols being kept in 'sarvajanik mandals' and worshipped across the country. After 10 days, that is, on Anant Chaturdashi the Ganesha idols are taken on a procession and are immersed in water bodies marking the end of Ganesha festival.

The other important news that makes rounds during the end of the festival is the statistics of the deaths reported during the immersion of the Ganesha idols. Maharashtra ranks number one in the list as the highest number of deaths during Ganesh Chaturthi. This year, almost 30 deaths were reported in Maharashtra alone. Deaths are caused mostly due to drowning.

In Maharashtra, in the past 24 hours, one person drowned in Bhandup, eastern Mumbai, while four deaths were reported from Pune, three each in Ratnagiri and Jalna, two each in Bhandara and Satara and one each in Nanded, Buldhana and Ahmednagar.

In a freak incident, at least five persons including three girls were rescued when they fell in the sea water at Girgaum Chowpatty on Monday morning when their overloaded boat overturned during the immersion ceremony. Another 17 persons were injured when a large idol of Lord Ganesha tripped and fell on them during immersion ceremonies in Kandivali suburb, in northwest Mumbai.

843 gigantic idols and nearly 33,700 household idols, ranging from a few inches to several feet, were immersed on Monday. During the past few phases of immersion in the festive season, another 241,000 big, medium and small idols were immersed, besides an estimated 800,000 in the rest of Maharashtra, drawing the curtains on the state's biggest public festival.