Ganesh Chaturthi: The elephant-headed god's festival kicks off across India

Despite high inflation and rising fuel prices, people all over India rolled out the red carpet for the popular elephant-headed god, Lord Ganesha

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Since the past few weeks, specialists and artists have been giving final touches to their Lord Ganesha idols and delivering them in trucks, tempos, cars, while some carry them on their heads to their homes, amidst chants of "Ganpati Bappa Morya." The festival began with devotees, mostly attired in traditional clothes, bringing colourfully-crafted idols of the elephant-headed God in their homes and pandal.

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Members of a band play drums as an idol of Lord Ganesha is being taken for installation, the dancing feet on the floor, loud ballads of Lord Ganesh - all of this gives evidence that Ganesh Chaturthi has just begun.

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The festival celebrates Lord Ganesha as the God of New Beginnings and the Remover of Obstacles as well as the god of wisdom and intelligence. The celebration comes to an end after 10 days when people come out in large numbers for immersing the idols in the sea or in different water bodies.

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Amid so many big idols, here's an idol of Lord Ganesha made from the shell of Buddha Coconut tree on the eve of Ganesha Chaturthi festival, in Bengaluru. The festival is celebrated all over the country by commoners, celebrities, industrialists and politicians, housing complexes, private and public companies.

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In all major cities and towns in the state, including Mumbai, Pune, Nashik and Nagpur, huge idols of Lord Ganesha have been placed on raised platforms for people to worship. This year, Ganeshotsav coincides with the Jain holy month of fasting during Paryushan, the ongoing week-long Mt. Mary Church annual fair in Bandra while Muslims will observe Muharram on September 20.

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A sand sculpture of Lord Ganesha made by artist Sudarsan Pattnaik, on a beach in Puri.

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"Tree Ganesha" is an Idol that is made of red soil, organic fertilizer, natural colour and seeds. This unique idol is designed by artisan Dattadri Kothur and the most striking feature of the idol is the fact that it has a seed inside and can be grown into a plant by pouring water after immersion.

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The festival sees devotees offering to the deity various sweets as prasad, of which 'modak' is an integral part. But this Ludhiana bakery had different ideas. It is their third year of making Chocolate Lord Ganesha. It took 10 days, 20 chefs & 65 kgs of chocolate for making the Chocolate Ganapati. Fun fact is that instead of the Sea, they will dip it in Milk & serve it to poor and starving kids.

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Students perform mass 'Puja' at Swaraswati Bidya Mandir on occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi festival, in Bhubaneswar.

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Devotees offer prayers during the Sinjara celebration on the eve of Ganesh Chaturthi, at Moti Dungri temple in Jaipur. Immersion of Ganesha idols will be taken up in phases and the grand send-off would be on September 23.