Ganesh festival waste up 40% this year; 400% more than three years ago

GHMC workers clear roads of confetti and other garbage in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

The stretch from Necklace Road to Secretariat Junction is filled with a line of trolleybuses carrying Ganesha idols of all shapes and sizes. Tired but euphoric revelers in synchronized outfits mount the chariots and wait for gigantic cranes to lift their much-worshipped idols and drop them into the waters of Hussainsagar.

A series of instructions are heard from the police announcing the numbers of the cranes to approach for the immersion. Several tired cops can be seen around, waiting for the ordeal to end so they can get to the elusive 40 blinks.

Suddenly, the confetti machine attracts all eyes and shoots a barrage of colorful paper scraps and glitter everywhere.

Roads littered with paper confetti and other rubbish in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

There are still traces of last night’s festivities on the road, in confetti strewn, used paper plates piled on the side of the road and an unbearable stench emanating from the drying streaks of urine behind the police barricades on the other side of the lake. It’s still a much nicer picture than the day before though. There were no traces of the paper and plastic cups used to distribute ‘Prasadam’ or any leftover food left on the roads. Flower and leaf litter from carts is cleared without a hint.

Sanitation teams of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) have done a thorough job of cleaning the road, even before the shindig is over. A total of 136 teams were on the ground 24×7 and more than 6,000 sweepers worked round the clock to clear the garbage every day. According to official figures, a total of 770 laborers toiled to keep the Hussainsagar immersion site clean.

The sad thing about all of them is that immersion waste is increasing every year without any attention to sustainability or civic sense.

Roads littered with paper confetti in Hyderabad on Saturday. | Photo credit: RAMAKRISHNA G

According to official records, a total of 4,527 metric tons of additional waste was taken off the roads during the 11 days of festivities ending on September 25, 2026. This is about 40% more waste than last year when 3,266 metric tonnes of waste was collected and taken to the solid waste management facility in Ganesh at the end of the Jawahar festival.

Compared to three years ago, there is four times more waste this year. In 2023, the total waste from the festival was about 1,100 metric tons.

GHMC officials informed that a total of 1.15 lakh idols have been immersed in various lakes under the jurisdiction of GHMC till 26 September 2026 till 5 PM. A total of 66,000 idols are said to have been immersed in Hussainsagar alone.

Published – 26 Sep 2026 21:15 IST