India, Sept. 2 -- The old joke about losing one's footwear outside a temple took an unexpected turn in Lalbaug-Parel on Saturday evening, when thousands of devotees who gathered for Ganesh idol arrival processions ended up leaving behind more than just memories of the celebrations.

As massive crowds turned up for the processions, roads in the area were strewn with sandals, chappals, shoes and even boots of various shapes and sizes.

The unusual aftermath left the BMC's solid waste management department with an additional task during its post-procession clean-up: collecting tonnes of discarded and lost footwear.

According to civic officials, around four metric tonnes of footwear-approximately one dumper load-was collected from areas incl...