Overview

• Bombay High Court’s interim regime allows making and selling Plaster‑of‑Paris idols but requires idols up to six feet to be immersed only in artificial tanks, with taller idols permitted in natural waters under safeguards through at least March 2026.
• Mumbai’s civic body will add 75 artificial ponds to reach roughly 275 sites citywide, including four new ponds at Girgaon Chowpatty, with PoP remnants slated for scientific recycling at the Shilphata facility; an artificial pond is also being prepared at Shivaji Park in Dadar.
• Pune Municipal Corporation is expanding capacity to 648 steel tanks at 281 locations and urging donations at 241 centres after 176,067 idols were donated last year, and it will continue withholding ammonium bicarbonate distribution to discourage PoP use.
• Security plans include more than 17,000 Mumbai Police personnel backed by AI‑enabled CCTV, drones and quick‑response units, over 8,000 Pune police with BDDS teams, anti‑drone measures and noise monitoring, and 2,727 personnel in Pimpri‑Chinchwad across 45 immersion spots.
• State authorities have declared Ganeshotsav a state festival with schools, banks and government offices closed on August 27, while environmental guidelines require red marking on PoP idols, sale registers for tracking, and post‑immersion seabed cleaning and recycling by local bodies.