By Ila Garg
Every year, Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated across the nation with great pomp and show.
It is a 10-day festival that Hindus celebrate with great fervour during the month of Bhadra (23 August-22 September) in accordance with the Hindu calender.
The preparations begin months ahead of the event as hundreds of
artisans start making Ganesha idols and paint them in beautiful colors.
Many tourists too love to visit India to witness the proceedings of
Ganesha Chaturthi as the excitement that this festival brings with
itself is unparalleled.
Streets of Mumbai go berserk as innumerable hues and countless tunes take over to
celebrate the birthday of our elephant-headed God, Ganesha.
However post festival, the water pollution caused by immersion of idols cannot be ignored.
The idols, made up of toxic materials like Plaster of Paris, cement,
plastic, and clay do not dissolve in water easily and later they create a
layer on the water surface. This layer then cause breathing and
surviving difficulty for fish and other aquatic creatures. And, that’s
not all! The paints used to colour the idols contain mercury and lead.
The plastic and cement used in the idols takes months to dissolve and
yet the residue is left lurking near the debris. Also, the water’s acid
content increases post the festival due to the immersion of idols.
This polluted water not only hits the flora and fauna adversely but also causes diseases like skin irritation and others.
After the immersion, no steps are taken to clean the water so the
pollution aggravates the problem. The Yamuna River in Delhi suffers to a
large extent due to the immersion of idols. “
Even
after the immersion, no one from the (municipal) corporation comes to
clean the riverbank. The locals collect the bamboo from the river bank
for their own use. This practice is seen every year. The MCD comes to
just put the road in order,” said Bhubaneswar, a local resident.
Rajesh, a member of a puja committee from Noida
Sector 76, said, “The clay used for making Durga idols in Kolkata is
always recommended because it gets absorbed in the water. Idols made of
Plaster of Paris are not good because they release a lot of chemicals.
The government should make alternate arrangements for immersion of
Ganesha idols.”
This problem has persisted for many years now. The number of idols
immersed increases every year. This year, the 10-day festival that ended
on September 18 saw at least six lakh idols immersed in small lakes,
rivers, and seas across Maharashtra. Many more idols were immersed
nationwide. Imagine the amount of pollution that this would cause due to
the toxins used in the idols!
“Every year we come here for Visarjan. There is
no alternate arrangement. We don’t want to pollute the Yamuna but can’t
help it. Every year the Yamuna gets dirty during Ganesha festival and
Durga Puja, the government should do something about it. There is so
much space near the ghat. The government should make separate arrangement for immersion. The sages and seers
of our country should come forward and create awareness about it. Only
then, this practice would change for the better,” said Somesh Lal, an
engineer and a member of the puja committee in Delhi.
On
September 16, the National Green Tribunal (NGT) came out with an order
to ban the immersion of idols made of plastic and Plaster of Paris. As awareness is finally spreading, people have started working towards
finding eco-friendly alternatives of celebrating Lord Ganesha’s birthday.
Many organizations have addressed this issue and are actively coming up
with eco-friendly Ganesha idols that are made of biodegradable
materials and thus they can be safely immersed in the water. They also
encouraged people to immerse the idols in tanks instead of rivers or
seas to keep a check on the pollution.
In this regard, while on one hand a Mumbai-based NGO launched the
#GodSaveTheOcean campaign, on the other hand, a Bengaluru-based organisation,
‘To Make a Difference’ (TMAD) manufactured 9-inch long eco-friendly Ganesha idols and home-delivered them to several houses this year.
Recently, the
Human Resource Development Centre also started a Skill Development Scheme under
which a small group of women made idols using bio-degradable materials.
Two self-driven citizens of India– Shashi Shah who is an IT consultant
and a Bengaluru-resident along with his friend Subru– started
a company called Mudpiez this
year. This company delivers ocean-friendly Ganesha idols and also
offers to pick the idols for the immersion to ensure that the idols are
immersed in an eco-friendly manner and not merely dumped in lakes,
rivers, and seas. It is indeed a welcome move.
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The eco-friendly Ganesha idols have been discussed upon a lot of
times in the past but this year, we saw the execution of the idea.
However, what came across as the most innovative way of celebrating an
eco-friendly Ganesha Chaturthi was the idol that was made up of
chocolate.
A Mumbai-based baker Rintu Kalyani Rathod became
an inspiration when she chose to make a 38 inches tall Ganesha idol
with 35 kg of chocolate. It took her 50 hours to do so. What she did
next is perhaps the most-amazing part of this whole idea. She immersed
the chocolate Ganesha idol in milk and then she distributed it among
hundreds of underprivileged kids.
This
served two purposes; firstly, it didn’t cause any pollution and
secondly, by spreading happiness among the poor kids, she earned a lot
of love and blessings.
Next year, for Ganesha Chaturthi, let us bring eco-friendly Ganesha
idols to our homes and save the environment without hampering the
festivity.
(With quotes from IANS)
