Do your bit of saving the environment while enjoying a festival.
The much-awaited festival of the elephant-headed god is around the corner and we cannot keep calm. While we miss the processions and pandal hopping for blessings and prasad, we will be giving them a skip this year too—the pandemic isn’t over guys. While we do say we miss the fun and the festivities, what we do not miss is the spectacle we get to see post visarjan. Broken arms and the decapitated heads of our beloved idol are found strewn across the sandy beaches. We collectively can do better, for the environment at least. Let’s say goodbye to the PoP (Plaster of Paris) idols and opt for some innovative eco-friendly Ganapati idols this year. Enjoy the festival to the max plus zero harm to our surroundings—it’s a win-win situation!
1. CLAY GANESHA
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Way before PoP idols took over the market and robbed sculptors of their livelihoods, clay idols were the way to go. Made from natural clay that is mixed with natural binders to hold its shape, clay Ganesha idols have slowly found their way back into the homes of some devotees. You could be one of them too. Painted with water dissolvable paints like poster colours or water colours, you need not make a trip to a water body for the visarjan. All you need is a big bucket of water. Immerse the idol in it slowly till it’s dissolved completely, then head on to water your plants with the same. No wastage of water and your plants are blessed as well.
2. TREE GANESHA
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The name is representative of what the idol can do. One of the most sought out eco-friendly Ganapati idols, this will take your regular looking murti and transform it into a tree. How you ask? Well, the idol is made of red soil, organic fertiliser, and natural colours with seeds embedded inside them. When you plan on taking the idol for visarjan, place the Ganapati idol in a large planter and pour water over it till the idol is dissolved to leave behind the mud with the seeds in it. Water it every day and watch the plant grow. Imagine the number of trees you can grow through the years?
3. CHOCOLATE GANESHA
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One of the most innovative ways that we have seen a Ganesha idol being made is the chocolate Ganesha. The idol is sculpted out of chocolate and immersed on the final day in milk. Most people consider milk to be holy and a pious addition to the visarjan ritual. On the day of the visarjan, dip your chocolate Ganapati idol into a bucket of milk, pour some milk over it as well and wait till it dissolves. Once dissolved, distribute this chocolate milk as prasad amongst those around you or the homeless people or kids on the street!
4. PAPER MÂCHÉ GANESHA
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Paper mâché idols are similar to clay idols, but half their weight. It’s lightweight and incredibly attractive and sturdy with the decorations that one does on it. These paper mâché idols are very easy to immerse in water. You need a bucket of water and you can immerse the idol till it’s completely dissolved. With close to zero effects on the environment, these chemical-free idols are ideal for environmentally conscious people.
5. FRUIT GANESHA
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We HAD to have this on the list! This creative masterpiece is recommended for those who want to stand out and be different. If you have a society idol in place, then we suggest you try this one out. The entire idol is made only with fruits. You can pick and choose your fruits of choice, cut them up or keep them full to make the idol of your imagination. After performing the puja, you can distribute the fruits as prasad and is the easiest way of spreading the idol’s blessings.
6. ALUM GANESHA
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It’s comparatively newer to the market, and a necessary one if we must say so ourselves. Alum blocks are crystallised blocks of potassium alum—an antiseptic, astringent compound that has been used since ancient times to remove unwanted colour and turbidity in water. Immerse the alum idol in a small water body and watch it get purified. We should be making bigger alum Ganesha idols too, don’t you think? Imagine the water bodies that could be cleaned?
7. COCONUT GANESHA
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Carved out of coconut, this idol is tiny in nature compared to the others on the list, but just as important. If you are an environmentalist by heart, you wouldn’t mind getting yourself a coconut Ganesha. You can either crack it open once done, but if that doesn’t sit well with you, immerse it in water and then let it sprout. Once the coconut has a long green end, transfer it into the mud and watch the tree grow.
All of these Green Ganesha’s, as we call them, are an important part of changing the way we look at festivals. We at Man’s Life are hoping to help change the narrative one day at a time. Here is hoping that one day we will have no PoP and embrace eco-friendly idols completely!
[Image Credit: Shutterstock]
Shraddha Shetty