Prize for most eco-friendly home Ganesha goes to...

Anandrao More and wife Sheila pose with their eco-friendly Ganpati idol

Civic officials of F-South ward are looking for the 'Raja of environment' this Ganeshotsav. For the first time in the city, they have announced a competition for families who install eco-friendly Ganesh idols in homes (gharguti Ganpati), and celebrate the festival with an eye on the environment.

Some of the criteria
The criteria for the competition called 'Ganpati Mazha Paryavarancha Raja' (My Ganpati, the king of the environment), includes using eco-friendly homemade decorations that don't have even a tiny bit of plastic or thermocol. Participants will also be evaluated on the social message they pick, and there are extra points for those who immerse idols in artificial ponds.

"Instead of the usual protocol of spreading awareness about using environment-friendly material, this year we also thought of introducing a competition to increase public participation. Immersion of idols in the sea adds to pollution, and is responsible for garbage washing up on beaches. Hence, we have encouraged people to opt for artificial ponds as part of the competition," said Kishore Desai, assistant municipal commissioner of F South ward.

Inspired by Afroz Shah
Among the top contenders is Anandrao Sitaram More, a resident of TJ Road in Sewri, who has designed his decorations around the theme of discouraging the use of plastic, or as he has named it, 'Plastic Hatao Desh Bachao'. Inspired by lawyer and activist Afroz Shah, who cleaned up Versova beach, More said he was upset when he found out about turtles that often get entangled in plastic waste.

"There is so much plastic waste generated on a daily basis and it is ruining the environment. Shah had said that we shouldn't rely on the government to change things, but do something on our own to save the environment. This is my little contribution," he said adding that all the decorations used by him and his family are made of paper and cardboard boxes. He immersed his idol on Monday.

On a bigger scale next time
F South ward officials had involved local corporators to spread the word about the competition. But, they said that unfortunately, the decision to hold the competition was taken at the last minute, so only 25 families registered. The ward officials, however, are planning to hold it on a larger scale next year.

"We will include around 80 pandals and target the 400-odd families who celebrate the festival at home. This time we were only able to advertise for two weeks but next year we will start two months in advance with better prizes," said another official from F South ward.

Also Read: Mumbai: Volunteers collect broken Ganpati idols from Juhu, Dadar beaches

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