Ganesh festival waste in Hyderabad up 40% in a year, four times the 2023 level

Hyderabad lifted 4,527 metric tonnes of additional waste from its roads during the 11 days of Ganesh Chaturthi festivities that ended on September 25, 2026 — about 40 per cent more than the 3,266 metric tonnes collected during last year's festival.

Compared with 2023, when the festival generated roughly 1,100 metric tonnes, this year's figure is more than four times higher, according to official records. The waste was carted to the solid waste management facility at Jawahar Nagar.

The rise comes despite a large-scale sanitation operation. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) deployed 136 teams round the clock, and more than 6,000 sweepers cleared waste every day. At the Hussainsagar immersion point alone, 770 workers were assigned to keep the area clean.

That effort was visible along the stretch from Necklace Road towards the Secretariat junction. The morning after the main immersion rush, roads that had been strewn with confetti and used paper plates were largely clear. Flower and foliage waste left behind by trolleys carrying idols had been removed without a trace. What remained were patches behind the police barricades on the far side of the lake where public urination had taken place — a recurring sanitation problem at large public gatherings.

By 5 p.m. on September 26, 2026, a total of 1.15 lakh idols had been immersed in lakes under GHMC's jurisdiction, officials said. About 66,000 of them were immersed in Hussainsagar alone.

The immersion itself ran as a long, orderly queue. Trolleys carrying idols of every size inched along Necklace Road, with revellers in matching attire riding atop them. Police announcements over loudspeakers directed groups to the crane assigned to them, and cranes lifted the idols into the lake as the crowds waited — tired, but celebratory.

The growing volume of waste points to an environmental cost that has concerned civic bodies and green groups for years. Idols are traditionally shaped from clay, which dissolves in water. A large share of those sold in cities, however, is made of plaster of Paris, which hardens into a slow-decaying residue. Paints and synthetic dyes used to decorate idols can carry heavy metals and other pollutants into lakes and ponds.

Alongside the idols, immersion processions leave behind plastic decorations, thermocol, garlands, food remnants and single-use plates. Municipal bodies, including GHMC, have in past years run awareness campaigns urging residents to use clay idols and to keep plastic and other non-biodegradable material out of the water.

Hussainsagar, a 16th-century lake in the heart of the city, is the focal point of the festival in Hyderabad and takes the heaviest load each year. The residue that settles after immersion adds to the sediment load in the lake, and clean-up continues well after the crowds disperse.

What the official figures make clear is the direction of the trend. Festival waste in the city has risen every year for which comparable data is available — from about 1,100 metric tonnes in 2023, to 3,266 metric tonnes in 2025, to 4,527 metric tonnes in 2026. The number of idols immersed has grown alongside it.

For the sanitation workers involved, the festival stretches over nearly a fortnight of continuous shifts, with the heaviest load falling on the days around the final immersion. Their work is largely finished before the last trolley leaves the road. The question of how much waste the city generates the next time round, however, remains unanswered.