Devotees bid emotional farewell to Ganapati

Nashik: The final day of Ganeshotsav, also called Anant Chaturdashi, involved over 500 mandals joining for the immersion processions and was completed by Tuesday midnight. Lakhs of devotees joined the celebrations, gathering at river banks in their neighbourhoods for the immersion of Ganapati idol.
People bid an emotional farewell to Ganapati marking the culmination of the 11-day-long festival in the city.
The attraction of the day was, however, the Ganapati immersion processions that were organised all over the city.
The traditional Ganapati immersion procession began from the Wakadi Barav in the old city in the presence of district guardian minister Dada Bhuse, MLA Devyani Pharande, president of the Sarvajanik Ganapati Mandal Association in Nashik city Sameer Shete, and other senior officers of the district administration and the police department. More than 20 mandals were part of the traditional immersion procession.
This year, the Ganapati mandals celebrating the festival had themselves decided not to make use of the laser lights, considering some cases of injuries to the eyes of some people from the lights. Amid the beats of drums of the Dhol Phataks, the immersion processions traversed through the old city areas as thousands and thousands of people came to watch them and the performance of the Dhol Pathaks.
The city police maintained strict bandobast to ensure that the immersion procession was held without any untoward incident. No breach of law and order was reported through the day during the immersion processions that ended at the stroke of midnight.
The banks of river Godavari, Darna, and Waldevi situated in the city were busy with devotees bidding farewell to Bappa. Residents of many residential colonies had their own celebrations on Tuesday.