An Eco-Friendly Ganesh

[Guest guest]

Indians buy clay, paper elephant-god statues to turn Hindu festival

eco-friendly

The Canadian Press

Sept. 25, 2007

 

MUMBAI, India

Hindu worshippers are increasingly returning to the humble

clay and paper idols of earlier generations in a bid to save

the environment from the harmful effects of immersing

hundreds of thousands of toxic statues in waters during a

major Hindu festival, activists said Tuesday.

 

Every year millions of devout Hindus immerse idols of the

elephant-headed god Ganesh into oceans and rivers in the

ten-day long Ganesh Chaturti festival that celebrates the

birth of the Hindu god. More than 70,000 idols are

immersed in India's financial capital, Mumbai alone.

 

Singing hymns and beating drums, long processions wade

into the water to submerge the idol to mark the natural cycle

of creation and dissolution.

 

The effects are typically felt in the environment for weeks

after as idol fragments, made mostly of plastic and plaster of

Paris, wash up on shores and toxic chemicals from the

paints pollute waters and poison fish.

 

Traditionally Ganesh idols were small, made of clay and

painted with vegetable dyes. But over the last three decades

the emphasis shifted to towering idols more than four

metres high decorated with semiprecious stones.

 

" Bigger and brighter became better during the festival. The

statues don't dissolve, but lie on the shore for weeks, " said

Debi Goenka, executive trustee of Conservation Action

Trust.

 

" People have realized this and looked for alternatives, " she

said.

 

An increasing number of Indians now buy clay and papier-

mache idols that will dissolve in water. They immerse these

in the sea or in tubs and buckets at home. Others

symbolically dip brass idols in the ocean and take them back

home.

 

Mumbai resident Sunil Joshi chanted Hindu prayers along

with relatives and friends last week before immersing a

small clay idol in a bucket.

 

" By the next morning it had dissolved and we used the

water for our plants, " Joshi said on Tuesday. " One has to do

something for the environment instead of polluting water

and people are getting more conscious about this. "

 

While the numbers of eco-friendly worshippers are tiny,

they are growing steadily.

 

A nongovernment organization, the Aniruddha Upasana

Trust, said it sold more than 2,000 papier-mache idols this

year, up from just 300 three years ago.

 

One company, ECoexist, located in Pune, 160 kilometres

southeast of Mumbai, sold out 175 clay idols this year up

from 30 last year. Founder, Manisha Gutman, says they

educate sculptors to use natural colours like turmeric instead

of paints containing lead and mercury.

 

" We are trying to create a market of educated people who

will make this choice, " she said. " People want to shift to

eco-sensitive products, but don't know where it's available.

We must bridge this gap between demand and supply. "

 

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