Nagpur has been echoing with the slogan ‘Ek ladu Futla, Ganapati Bappa Uthla!’ for the past two days of Ganapati Visarjan. While bidding farewell to our beloved Bappa, we Nagpurians did every bit to please Him to come back next year. But the city’s civic sense took a beating somewhere. The condition of Nagpur’s most popular Futala Lake is in the doldrums due to the excessive garbage (flowers, plastics, etc) having been put into it, during the immersion of the Ganesha idols by the devotees. Dead fishes and plankton at Futala speak volumes of our callous approach towards our to-be-preserved flora and fauna.

Also read: Immersion of ‘Nagpur Cha Raja’ in Koradi Lake

While capturing the post immersion ‘disgusted condition’ of Futala Lake in our cameras, Team Nation Next was really glad to stumble upon a group of students and teachers, who were painstakingly cleaning the lake.

Dr Ambedkar College’s faculty Dr Archana Meshram (zoology department) and Shubhash Somukar (botany department), along with their students, were clearing the lake of the garbage and residues of the idols. Dr Meshram said, “For the past six years, I have been coming to Futala Lake along with my team after Ganapati Visarjan, for saving the flora and fauna, which die because of the filth that is immersed in the lake. We are consistently working towards nature conservation. Every year after Ganapati Visarjan is over, we visit various lakes of Nagpur to clean them properly and dispose the garbage gathered in them.”

While Good Samaritans like Dr Meshram, Somukar and their students are putting in their best efforts to keep our water bodies clean, we, at Nation Next, would like to appeal to you to do your bit to keep our environment clean! Here’s a look at our Futala Lake full of filth and garbage. Let’s decide if we want to treat our lovely lakes this way…

Photos by: Barkha Goenka