The colourful festivity that marks Vinayaka Chavithi is all set to begin. Even as the Lord gets more jazzier and taller with each passing year, eco-friendly clay idols have certainly made their way into the exuberant festive celebrations this year.
As the festival whirls and eddies around the city, most of the shopping malls in the city are giving out the message of worshipping the Lord in an eco-friendly avatar to reduce the pollution resulting from the large-scale immersion of idols.
To promote the use of eco-friendly idols, CMR has installed huge idols of Ganesha made of red sand from Kolkata at its shopping malls in the city. The lord stands tall at 30 feet at CMR Central while at the CMR Shopping Mall at Jagadamba Junction he is 28 feet high and at its Gajuwaka branch, the idol is 26 feet tall.
Expert artistes
These idols are made of eco-friendly materials specially brought from Kolkata. The dexterous fingers of the artistes from Bengal and their years of experience transform the idols into a majestic appearance draped in moulds of modest earthy clay. Ganesha is depicted in varying sizes and in myriad moods - dancing, playing on musical instruments, meditating or reclining.
“Our idea is to promote eco-friendly way of worshipping Lord Ganesha. These idols will be dissolved on the spot and it does not pollute the waters like the POP idols,” said CMR CMD M.V. Ramana. Even the colours used are vegetable dyes, he added. Based on similar principles, a 76-feet high eco-friendly Ganesha idol is being made at Gajuwaka, efying the common belief that big idols cannot be made of clay.
Schools and colleges are doing their bit to encourage the use of the clay idols. Clay-modeling workshops are being conducted at various schools in the city to pass the message of an environment-friendly celebration.
