India, Sept. 2 -- On the fifth day of the Ganesh festival, over 36,000 idols had been immersed. Of these, a tiny fraction of 135 were immersed in natural water bodies - a testament to the MPCB's regulations, Bombay High Court's rulings, and the BMC's doubling down on artificial ponds. It is this that has caused the BMC's expenditure on Ganeshotsav to skyrocket over the years.

An expenditure of Rs.0.32 crore in 2007-08, as per data accessed through an RTI response by activist and lawyer Godfrey Pimenta, has jumped to Rs.54.47 crore in 2024-25. The most substantial rises were seen from 2019-20 to 2020-21, the beginning of Covid, from Rs.10.2 crore to Rs.22.88 crore - a 124% increase; and between 2022-23 and 2023-24, from Rs.31.12 crore to ...