Pune: As many as 4,170 Ganapati mandals and 6,24,685 households in the city installed idols this year. While the mandals slightly increased when compared to the last year, the households declined by 1.2 lakh.A special branch of the Pune city police compiled data as part of the Ganapati festival deployment. The data stated that 6,24,685 Ganapati idols were installed in households this year, compared to 7,45,944 in 2025. The police said they did not know the reason for the decline in household installations this year.It must be noted that the police do not count non-registered Bal Ganesh mandals, for which the number could be between 2,000 and 2,500 in the city.Sanjay Darade, joint commissioner of police, told TOI, “The number of Ganapati mandals increased in the city by 211. Last year, there were 3,959 registered Ganapati mandals. The numbers mainly increased because many areas near the city were merged into the Pune city police limits in the past two years.”The police said the maximum number of Ganapati mandals were in the old parts of the city, followed by the Pune-Satara Road area. The police also said permission was not granted to any new mandal this year.The mandals have to maintain records of their financial affairs and history. They also need to be registered with the Charity Commissioner and the Pune city police.
