Mumbai’s Green Warriors Saving Beaches Post-Ganpati Visarjan

Mumbai’s beaches, often strewn with dilapidated Ganpati idols and ritual remnants after Ganesh Chaturthi, have found their saviours in a dedicated team of green warriors. The group, known as Beach Warriors, has been at the forefront of organising clean-up drives during Ganpati Visarjan for the past seven years, removing thousands of broken idols and tonnes of waste to keep the city’s shores clean.

Beach Warriors, founded in 2017 by a marketing professional and social media influencer, began as a small initiative inspired by other clean-up campaigns. What started as a single-day effort by the founder, Kwatra, and two friends at Dadar beach quickly gained momentum, attracting young volunteers, including college students. Encouraged by a professor, Kwatra decided to transform the initial effort into a regular weekly campaign, with special clean-ups during Ganesh Chaturthi each year.

“I’ve been bringing Ganpati Bappa home for over 25 years, and seeing the idols abandoned and broken after the visarjan was disheartening,” Kwatra explained. “When I shared pictures of the broken idols on social media, some people criticised me as anti-Hindu, but it only motivated me to continue our work. Over the past seven years, we’ve conducted more than 350 weekly clean-ups, especially focusing on the immersion period.” Since its inception, Beach Warriors has removed over 4,000 tonnes of waste from Mumbai’s beaches, including Dadar, Prabhadevi, and Juhu Koliwada. During Ganesh Chaturthi, the group intensifies its efforts, also engaging in “Visarjan Sewa” by collecting worship materials from devotees and preventing them from entering the sea, thus minimising the environmental impact.

This year, the Beach Warriors plan to expand their sustainability efforts by collaborating with a Nashik-based recycler. The initiative aims to recycle the plaster of Paris (POP) used in idols and convert it into eco-friendly seating benches. Over the years, awareness about the environmental impact of idol immersion has grown among devotees, with the number of idols immersed in the sea dropping from around 450 to less than 100 per day. “We’ve noticed fewer dead marine creatures during our clean-ups post-visarjan, indicating that our efforts are making a difference,” Kwatra noted. “However, there is still much more work to be done to eliminate the immersion of POP idols, especially the larger ones, which currently have no alternative.” The Beach Warriors continue to strive towards a more sustainable celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi, reducing pollution and preserving Mumbai’s beaches for future generations.