Girgaon Chowpatty (

IAST The International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) is a transliteration scheme that allows the lossless romanisation of Brahmic family, Indic scripts as employed by Sanskrit and related Indic languages. It is based on a scheme that ...

: ''Giragāva Chaupāṭī''), is a public

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

along the Queen’s Necklace adjoining Marine Drive in the

Girgaon Girgaon, or Girgaum, is an area in southern Mumbai in Maharashtra, India. It is near the coast. A section of Marine Drive, Mumbai, Marine Drive is located here. History Girgaon has a deep-rooted connection with the celebration of Ganesh Cha ...

area of

Mumbai (Bombay) Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12.5 ...

, Konkan division, India. It is served by the Charni Road railway station. The beach is noted for its Ganesh Visarjan, when thousands of people from all over Mumbai and

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

come to immerse idols of

Ganesha Ganesha or Ganesh (, , ), also known as Ganapati, Vinayaka and Pillaiyar, is one of the best-known and most worshipped Deva (Hinduism), deities in the Hindu deities, Hindu pantheon and is the Supreme God in the Ganapatya sect. His depictions ...

in the

Arabian Sea The Arabian Sea () is a region of sea in the northern Indian Ocean, bounded on the west by the Arabian Peninsula, Gulf of Aden and Guardafui Channel, on the northwest by Gulf of Oman and Iran, on the north by Pakistan, on the east by India, and ...

after the 10 day festival of Ganesh Chaturthi. It is also one of the many places in the city where the Ramlila play is performed onstage every year during

Navaratri Navaratri () is an annual Hindu festival observed in honor of the goddess Durga, an aspect of Adi Parashakti, the supreme goddess. It spans over nine nights, first in the month of Chaitra (March/April of the Gregorian calendar), and aga ...

and an effigy of

Ravana According to the Mahakavya, Hindu epic, ''Ramayana'', Ravana was a kingJustin W. Henry, ''Ravana's Kingdom: The Ramayana and Sri Lankan History from Below'', Oxford University Press, p.3 of the island of Lanka, in which he is the chief antag ...

erected on the sand is burnt on

Vijayadashami Vijayadashami (), more commonly known as Dassahra in Hindi, and also known as Dashāhra or Dashain in Bhojpuri, Maithili and Nepali, is a major Hindu festival celebrated every year at the end of Durga Puja and Navaratri, Navarahtri. It is ob ...

at the end of the 10-day performance. Shiv Smarak, including tall statue of

Shivaji Shivaji I (Shivaji Shahaji Bhonsale, ; 19 February 1630 – 3 April 1680) was an Indian ruler and a member of the Bhonsle dynasty. Shivaji carved out his own independent kingdom from the Sultanate of Bijapur that formed the genesis of the ...

, is being constructed facing Mumbai's Girgaum Chowpatty beach, away on a manmade island of rocks.

Etymology

Chowpatty is an Anglicised form of ''Chau-pati'' (four channels or four creeks in Marathi) as per (Bombay City Gazetteer, I. 27). This name is analogous to that of Satpaty, a village in the Mahim Taluka of the Thane District, which is approached through a Channel or Creek, containing seven divisions of water.

History

On the road running along the beach, i.e. Marine Drive, the lone surviving terrorist of the 26/11 attacks, Ajmal Kasab, was caught and arrested. A bronze bust of Tukaram Omble, the policeman who helped to arrest Kasab, was erected on 26November 2009.

Pollution

The water surrounding the beach is heavily polluted, and swimming should be avoided. Fecal coliform was recorded in the water in 2013 at levels of 1455 per 100 mL, far above the acceptable standard of 500 per 100 mL. The presence of fecal coliform in the water has been attributed to waste from

storm drain A storm drain, storm sewer (United Kingdom, U.S. and Canada), highway drain, surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to drain excess rain and ground water from i ...

s, open

defecation Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion and is the necessary biological process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid metabolic waste, waste material known as feces (or faeces) from the digestive tract via the anus o ...

, and the discharge of raw sewage from sewer pipes not connected to the city mains. In 2015, there were reports of deteriorated Ganesha idols washing up on the shore. The idols were found after they were immersed on Anant Chaturdashi day, which heralds the end of the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. The idols that were found were made from plaster-of-paris. It is believed that POP idols cause pollution to marine life. After this, the government ordered only artisan made, clay idols to be immersed, since natural clay deteriorates into the ocean quickly without harming wildlife. POP was banned in Mumbai and most of the Ganesha idols are being made from clay. On 30 August 2016, the sand on the beach is said to be turning black due to a possible oil slick in the area. The specific cause of the blackening is unknown.

Images

File:Chowpatty Beach (Bombay).jpg, Girgaon Chowpatty with Nariman Point skyline in the background File:Chowpatty beach monsoon.jpg, Girgaon Chowpatty with Malabar Hills in the background File:Vendors on Chowpatty Beach.jpg, Corn cob vendors on Girgaon Chowpatty File:Mumbai, India, Family on the beach.jpg, Walking File:Mumbai, India, Girgaon Chowpatty Beach.jpg, Walking File:Mumbai, India, Bombay, Mumbai city skyline at night.jpg, Twilight at Girgaon Chowpatty File:Mumbai, India, Bombay, Mumbai skyline at sunset.jpg, Sunset at Girgaon Chowpatty File:Girgaum Chowpatty.jpg, View of Girgaon Chowpatty from Malabar Hill

References

External links