Fighting pollution, with Green Ganpati’s blessings

A group of college students started making eco-friendly idols of the God last year, and are enjoying unprecedented popularity, with orders pouring in for this year's festival

Fighting pollution, with Green Ganpati's blessings

A group of college students started making eco-friendly idols of the God last year, and are enjoying unprecedented popularity, with orders pouring in for this year's festival

While the city gears up for days of frenetic revelry this September, ecologists have been shouting themselves hoarse, at pains to alert the city's eager devotees of the severity of damage that their devotion can do to the environment.

The students from Hinduja College with the eco-friendly Ganesh idol

Thousands of idols made from hazardous materials like Plaster of Paris, coated with chemical paints containing injurious substances like Mercury, Cadmium, Lead and Carbon will be immersed in the city's water bodies yet again this year, poisoning it irrevocably.

Amidst this bleak environmental scenario, a faint ray of hope can be discerned, shone by a group of enterprising young students. Last year, this zealous lot at the KPB Hinduja College at Charni Road joined forces to set the bar for eco-friendly worship, modelling their Ganpati idol with newspapers.

The unexpected success of their venture has not only won them accolades, but also a slew of orders for similar models this year.

Responding to this unprecedented windfall, the kids have formed a body, referring to themselves quite fittingly as 'Youth Unite'. This group comprises recent pass outs, as well as present students. Their first were none other than officials of the college management body, who placed orders for two idols.

The novel venture was the brainchild of the NSS section of the student body, who got together with the past club members to create a one-of-its-kind eco-friendly Ganpati idol for their college celebrations.
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In course of the workshop, about 25 students were taught how to make Ganpati idols with materials that were easily biodegradable, such as used paper from their notebooks.

Akshay Pawar, who passed out from the college earlier this year, was a member of this student body with a conscience. "We are very happy with the success of our enterprise. Officials from the management were the first takers, asking us to make two Ganpati idols this year."

P Aditya, presently a third year student of the college said, "This Ganpati idol doesn't have the slightest trace of plastic. Apart from the two orders received from college officials, we have received more than three orders from others. We will only ask to be compensated for the building materials.

No making charges will be imposed. Some of our group members go to other colleges, and they have been creating awareness about these eco-friendly idols in their respective colleges.
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We will start modeling our idols within ten days. We also await permission from the college authorities to impart our skills to students of other colleges."

Jayesh Patel, vice principal of KPB Hinduja College, said, "We were very impressed by the zeal that they displayed to protect the environment. We have decided to support them this year. We will encourage them to teach pupils at other colleges the skills they have acquired."

The green route to god
Sheets from old notebooks are collected from college students. The sheets are then torn into strips and soaked in water. The strips are dried, and mixed thoroughly with edible gum. A proportionate quantity of whitener is then added to the mixture, following which the paste is poured into a mould, shaped in the God's likeness.

Once the paste is dried in the mould for 24 hours, the mould is removed with the help of a screwdriver. The model that emerges from the mould is then polished. A fresh coat of whitener is added to the idol, which is then painted.u00a0