A four-year-old case in the Bombay High Court asking the government to ban Ganesh idols made of plaster of Paris could be moving towards conclusion, with the public prosecutor having said verbally last month that the government agrees with the petitioner.

The Maharashtra Andhshraddha Nirmulan Samiti (MANS), an organisation fighting blind faith and superstitions with branches across the state including Pune, had filed a petition in 2004 arguing that plaster of Paris is dangerous for the environment. The organisation concedes that the verdict is unlikely to come before the Ganpati festival, but is optimistic that a ban on idols made of plaster of Paris will be in place before next year’s festival.

This year, the organisation is again working with to people to promote eco-friendly models and has roped in students across the state. Its case is being heard by the Aurangabad bench of the High Court, where it is pushing for a policy decision to be taken to ban plaster of Paris idols in favour of clay idols.

“The court has now directed the public prosecutor to file the government’s agreement in an affidavit,” said lawyer Pravin Chavan, who is representing the petitioner.”Plaster of Paris (PoP) does not dissolve in water easily. On an average, if an idol made of PoP weighs 3 kg, then with over 10 million idols being made every season, we are releasing over 30 million kg PoP into our water bodies. This pollutes our fish; the water is also harmful for human consumption and causes breathing problems; it is primarily harmful for the environment,” said Chavan.

Since 2004, when the case was first filed, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has supported the petition and agreed that the water pollution is immense, Chavan said. Over the years, the petition has added prayers that artificial colours on idols be banned and that the height of community idols be standardised across the state. It also wants every village to have only one community idol.

“We cannot expect a verdict this year as the Ganpati festival is nearly upon us. But it could work out before next year,” said Narendra Dabolkar of the MANS. “Eventually, we hope that the idols would be of clay or mud which can be easily dissolved and natural colours would be used during the festival,” he said.

For this year, MANS is supporting the Directorate of Social Forestry in promoting the use of eco-friendly Ganpati idols at home. “Last year, only a few schools in Pune were building clay idols, this year we have over 8,800 eco-clubs across the state headed by the social forestry department along with the Harit Sena and the our organisation,” Dabolkar said.