India, Feb. 18 -- A blanket ban on Plaster of Paris (POP) idols for the upcoming Ganesh Chaturthi festival in August has worried the sculptors and sarvajanik (community) mandals that use this environmentally toxic material to fashion their often huge idols.

The mandals say that 2,000 Ganesh sculptors and 12,000 sarvajanik (community) mandals were impacted by the BMC's ban on immersing POP idols in natural water bodies during the Maghi Ganesh festival last week, following a Bombay high court directive. The BMC had offered artificial water bodies to the mandals but some of them refused.

The Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti (BSGSS) wants the state government to consider the upcoming Ganesh festival, resolve the dispute c...