Mumbai-based mandals take eco-friendly route to celebrate Ganeshotsav

As Mumbai gears up for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival a few of the citybased mandals have started making their own ecofriendly idols of Lord Ganesha and the decor around themWhile artisans across Maharashtra show their creativity by making huge idols made up of Plaster of Paris PoP some devotees opt for ecofriendly alternatives such as idols crafted from recycled materials or clay aiming to convey ecoconscious messages to society through their pandalsThe Ganesh Chaturthi festival also known as Ganeshotsav which falls in the Bhadrapada month of the Hindu calendar marks the birthday of Lord Ganesha The devotees bring Lord Ganesharsquos idol to their homes or community pandals across India in order to celebrate the festival This year the 10day festival will begin on September 19IN PHOTOS Huge crowd seen at Mumbais Dadar market ahead of GaneshotsavWorking on an ecofriendly concept for the past 12 years this year the Maladbased Shri Ganesh Mitra Mandal will be preparing a sixfoot idol made up of waste cardboardcartons The mandal is famous for utlising paper in different forms every year to make Lord Ganeshas idolSpeaking about the concept Jatin Rathod a member of the mandal said ldquoOur main theme for making an idol is lsquopaperrsquo Every year we try to use paper in different forms and ways to make the idol In the past we made idols using paper quilling art paper cups to name a few This year we have planned to make an idol from waste cardboardcartons One of our members is an artiste He comes up with different creative ideas and we shortlist one of among the many ideasrdquoPicAnagha SawantHe added ldquoA small dummy idol is prepared before finalising the concept to check the pros and cons of the concept Rather than giving an order the residents prepare the idol in the mandal This year we plan to complete the making of our Ganpati idol in two daysrdquoNarrating how the concept of celebrating the Ganeshotsav festival in an ecofriendly way came in shape Rathod explained ldquoThis is the 42nd year of our mandal but for 12 years we have been working around the ecofriendly concept In the first year we made an idol from cotton and later we shifted to paperrdquoEncouraging youngsters to participateThe ecofriendly concept helps to encourage the younger generation to work towards the environment as expressed by most of the mandals that have adopted the conceptldquoGiving out ecofriendly social messages to the pandal visitors after the idol is made is not the only motive Asking the younger generation to participate while making the idol is also important While the youngsters participate in idolmaking they not only learn to think about the environment but are also able to learn different art forms like paper quilling It helps to make the youngsters think creatively and come up with different outofthebox ideas during the planning stagerdquo added RathodEchoing similar thoughts one of the mandals located in Mulund added that the school students from class 4 to college students in their locality help the mandal to decorate the pandal using an ecofriendly conceptWhile the Mulundbased Shanti Nagar Ganesh Mandal has a sixfeet fiber idol of Lord Ganesha which they use every year they bring a new small idol made up of mud every year The mandal not only has ecofriendly idols but the decor too is made keeping the lsquobest out of wastersquo concept in mindSocial message related to the environmentSpeaking about the art decor theme planned by the mandal for this year Moses Thomas Peter president of the Shanti Nagar Ganesh Mandal said ldquoThis year we have come up with a lsquoglobal warmingrsquo theme and we are making an ice land made up of paper rods and waste plastic bottles This will help the visitors at the Ganpati pandal to understand lsquoglobal warmingrsquo in an explanatory and artistic form The decor related to the theme such as polar bears and penguins are made from waste plastic bottlesrdquoThe festival culminates on the day of Anant Chaturdashi marked by the immersion of the idol in a nearby water body which could be an artificial tank a river or the sea In the current year the celebrations will span ten days concluding on September 28Working on the social causeThe members of another mandal from Mulund make their own idols out of everyday materials rather than buying an idol for the festival The mandal is famous for setting a trend of making idols out of materials that can be later donated to the needyDipesh Yadav one of the committee members of the Sreenivas Ganeshotsav Mandal is the brainchild behind making innovative idols every year This year they have come up with the theme of lsquocelebrating the menrsquo in which the members will be showcasing the role of a man in society and familySpeaking about how the idol will be shaped based on the theme Dipesh expressed ldquoMen are into various professions such as milkman dabbawala corporate officergoer carpenter sportsman driver chef to name a few We will be using materials from their professional lives such as laptop bags utensils and spoons bat balls etc in order to make the idol Later the materials will be distributed among the needyrdquoAs per Yadav a list of materials required to make the idol is circulated in the society and the locals collect those materials a few weeks in advance before they start structuring the idolOn the immersion day rather than immersing the idol in the water body the committee members dismantle the idol and donate the materials to the poor and needy peopleAlso read Ganeshotsav 2023 Mumbais Khetwadi embraces a grand 45foot Ganesh idolKeeping the ecofriendly tradition aliveThe Thanebased Shreerang Society will be celebrating the 53rd year of the pandal and since the first year they have been bringing Lord Ganeshas idol made up of mud shadu mati The society members believe in keeping the tradition of their mandal alive by bringing ecofriendly idols every yearldquoWe plan the design of our idol almost a year in advance Our society has mostly people working in government sectors because of which since the beginning the earlier members were keen on getting idols made up of mud every year Now rather than opting for huge PoP idols all society members are keen on keeping the tradition of bringing a 35foot idol made up of shadu mati only We only change the design every yearrdquo said Pramod Sawant president of the mandalSawant further added ldquoIt has been almost a decade now that we have been using ecofriendly decor to decorate the pandal with themebased artwork We mostly use cardboard to make our art decorrdquo Sawant also expressed that this year the mandal is planning to create art decor based on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharajs coronation ceremony