The Chowpattee of Former Days, Bombay (9142699685)

Girgaon Chowpatty (

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

: ''Giragāva Chaupāṭī''), is a public beach along the Queen’s Necklace adjoining Marine Drive in the Girgaon area of

Mumbai (Bombay) Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

, Konkan division, India. It is served by the

Charni Road railway station Charni Road (formerly Churney Road, station code: CYR) is a railway station on the Western Line of the Mumbai Suburban Railway. It serves the suburb of Charni Road. The main significance of Charni Road station is that it is near the Girgaum C ...

. The beach is noted for its

Ganesh Visarjan Ganesh Chaturthi (ISO: ), also known as Vinayak Chaturthi (), or Ganeshotsav () is a Hindu festival commemorating the birth of the Hindu god Ganesha. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay idols privately in homes and p ...

, when thousands of people from all over Mumbai and Pune come to immerse idols of Ganesha in the Arabian Sea after the 10 day festival of

Ganesh Chaturthi Ganesh Chaturthi (ISO: ), also known as Vinayak Chaturthi (), or Ganeshotsav () is a Hindu festival commemorating the birth of the Hindu god Ganesha. The festival is marked with the installation of Ganesha's clay idols privately in homes and p ...

. It is also one of the many places in the city where the Ramlila play is performed onstage every year during Navaratri and an effigy of Ravana erected on the sand is burnt on Vijayadashami at the end of the 10-day performance. Shiv Smarak, including tall statue of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, 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 Tukaram Omble Ashoka Chakra (military decoration), AC ( 1954 – 27 November 2008) was an Indian police officer and a former member of Indian army who served as an assistant sub-inspector (ASI) of the Mumbai Police. He was killed in action durin ...

, 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 A fecal coliform (British: faecal coliform) is a facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, gram-negative, non-sporulating bacterium. Coliform bacteria generally originate in the intestines of warm-blooded animals. Fecal coliforms are capable of gr ...

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, United States, U.S. and Canada), surface water drain/sewer (United Kingdom), or stormwater drain (Australia and New Zealand) is infrastructure designed to Drainage, drain excess rain and ground water ...

s, open

defecation Defecation (or defaecation) follows digestion, and is a necessary process by which organisms eliminate a solid, semisolid, or liquid waste material known as feces from the digestive tract via the anus. The act has a variety of names ranging f ...

, and the discharge of

raw sewage Sewage (or domestic sewage, domestic wastewater, municipal wastewater) is a type of wastewater that is produced by a community of people. It is typically transported through a sewer system. Sewage consists of wastewater discharged from residenc ...

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

Mumbai attractions
Maharashtra Tourism.

External links