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

As Mumbai gears up for the Ganesh Chaturthi festival, a few of the city-based mandals have started making their own eco-friendly idols of Lord Ganesha and the decor around them.

While artisans across Maharashtra show their creativity by making huge idols made up of Plaster of Paris (PoP), some devotees opt for eco-friendly alternatives such as idols crafted from recycled materials or clay, aiming to convey eco-conscious messages to society through their pandals.

The 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 Ganesha's idol to their homes or community pandals across India in order to celebrate the festival. This year, the 10-day festival will begin on September 19.

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Working on an eco-friendly concept for the past 12 years, this year the Malad-based Shri Ganesh Mitra Mandal will be preparing a six-foot idol made up of waste cardboard/cartons. The mandal is famous for utlising paper in different forms every year to make Lord Ganesha's idol.

Speaking about the concept, Jatin Rathod, a member of the mandal said, "Our main theme for making an idol is ‘paper'. 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 cardboard/cartons. One of our members is an artiste. He comes up with different creative ideas, and we shortlist one of among the many ideas."

Pic/Anagha Sawant

He added, "A 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 days."

Narrating how the concept of celebrating the Ganeshotsav festival in an eco-friendly way came in shape, Rathod explained, "This is the 42nd year of our mandal, but for 12 years we have been working around the eco-friendly concept. In the first year, we made an idol from cotton, and later we shifted to paper."

Encouraging youngsters to participate

The eco-friendly concept helps to encourage the younger generation to work towards the environment, as expressed by most of the mandals that have adopted the concept.

"Giving out eco-friendly 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 idol-making, 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 out-of-the-box ideas during the planning stage," added Rathod.

Echoing 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 eco-friendly concept.

While the Mulund-based Shanti Nagar Ganesh Mandal has a six-feet 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 eco-friendly idols but the decor too is made keeping the ‘best out of waste' concept in mind.

Social message related to the environment

Speaking about the art decor theme planned by the mandal for this year, Moses Thomas Peter, president of the Shanti Nagar Ganesh Mandal said, "This year, we have come up with a ‘global warming' 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 ‘global warming' in an explanatory and artistic form. The decor related to the theme such as polar bears and penguins are made from waste plastic bottles."

The 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 28.

Working on the social cause

The 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 needy.

Dipesh 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 ‘celebrating the men' in which the members will be showcasing the role of a man in society and family.

Speaking about how the idol will be shaped based on the theme, Dipesh expressed, "Men are into various professions such as milkman, dabbawala, corporate officer-goer, 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 needy."

As 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 idol.

On 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 people.

Also read: Ganeshotsav 2023: Mumbai's Khetwadi embraces a grand 45-foot Ganesh idol

Keeping the eco-friendly tradition alive

The Thane-based Shreerang Society will be celebrating the 53rd year of the pandal, and since the first year, they have been bringing Lord Ganesha's idol made up of mud (shadu mati). The society members believe in keeping the tradition of their mandal alive by bringing eco-friendly idols every year.

"We 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 3.5-foot idol made up of shadu mati only. We only change the design every year," said Pramod Sawant, president of the mandal.

Sawant further added, "It has been almost a decade now, that we have been using eco-friendly decor to decorate the pandal with theme-based artwork. We mostly use cardboard to make our art decor." Sawant also expressed that this year, the mandal is planning to create art decor based on Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj's coronation ceremony.