HUBBALLI: The devotees and villagers at Gonarahalli in Kumta taluk of Uttara Kannada district had some tense moments when they immersed the Ganesha idol along with gold and silver jewellery on it.
Only after the immersion did the villagers and festival organisers came to know about the mistake. After realising the blunder, the villagers tried hard for two days to look for the jewellery but in vain. The idol was decorated with a gold ring, gold chain and several other silver ornaments.
After the efforts of villagers did not yield any results expert divers were called to the scene. On Monday, three youths from Devarbhavi village managed to dive and get back the gold ornaments much to the relief of villagers.
Diving with snorkelling equipment, businessman and trekker Vinay Nayak managed to locate the idol at the bottom of the lake. Later two fishermen Parameswhar and Chandrakanth from Kumta dived to get the idol.
As the idol was immersed three days ago it had turned into a clay bundle. After trying several dives the trio managed to fetch a gold ring and chain. The silver articles however could not be recovered.
"We got the request on Monday morning and we decided to help the Ganesha festival organisers. Many times have the devotees immersed idols with jewellery on it. But in this case, the gold and silver items were more and devotees were worried about the same. After a few attempts we managed to locate the idol and got the jewellery," Vinay said.
"Every year after the festival is over we auction the jewellery and other items used for the festival. This year too we conducted the prayers before immersing. As the garlands were around the idol in large numbers, the volunteers forgot to remove the jewellery at the last minute. We must thank Vinay and friends for being helpful," said a Ganesha organising committee member from Gonarahalli.