Mumbai: A collage of bright-coloured stone chips deccorate the Ganesha at the Shree Sai Darshan Mitra Mandal in Malad.
For the last 15 years, members of the pandal have used natural materials to create their Ganesha. “We believe that you should not put anything in the sea that does belong there,” said Montu Ruia from the mandal. “Many of these stones are also found in the sea and will settle on the sea bed after the idol is immersed. The paper will dissolve in the saline water in a matter of days and create organic matter for aquatic life.”
The Sai Darshan Mitra Mandal on Sainath Road, Malad (West) was started 40 years ago and a new generation has taken over the celebrations from the founders. “We decided to be more environmentally conscious 15 years ago and our Ganeshas have been eco-friendly since then,” added Ruia, who believes that their pandal was the first in the suburbs to create an eco-friendly Ganesha of this size.
While the body of the 100-kg idol is made of tissue paper and cardboard, the surface is studded with chips of red jasper, golden yellow jasper, labradorite, bloodstone, carnelian, and black obsidian.
The 9.5 ft idol is painstakingly made by the mandal workers themselves like every year and it takes at least 45 days to dry the idol. The idol is shaped from a mould that is reused every year. The process of collecting the materials and casting the mould begins even earlier – in March. The idol is immersed at the Marve Beach.
For the past few years, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and citizens groups have been trying to promote eco-friendly practices during the festival by promoting clay idols and other natural products that are biodegradable and non-toxic.
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While clay is the preferred material for eco-friendly idols as they dissolve quickly in the water, many pandals are also using idols made of less conventional material like paper and cardboard. The most commonly used material, plaster-of-Paris, an industrial product takes a long time to degrade and disrupts natural water bodies.
