Durga Puja is the biggest festival of Kolkata and Bengal. This year “the Pujas” started on the 13th of October and lasted till the 17th of October. Celebrated to express the joy of the defeat of the demon Mahishasura at the hands of the Goddess Durga, it seems this year ‘Maa Durga’ has chosen a different adversary - Environmental pollution was top on her list. Many of the thousand-odd community puja committees in the city of Kolkata organized the pujas in an eco-friendly manner, which goes to show the changing consciousness of the common man. As reported on EarthSmiles.net earlier, in 2009, 88 cases were registered for flouting environment norms. This year, many pujas were commended for exceeding them! Pujas were earlier associated with garbage on the roadsides from the vendors hawking their wares, and the pollution of waterbodies, especially the Hooghly, from the immersion of idols. This year quite a few of the environmental norms were followed – and followed not just because they were norms to be followed; but because the puja committes wanted to do that extra bit for the environment.
For example The Barisha Youth Club, who won the True Spirit Model Puja 2010 (a contest sponsored by the Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation and local daily, The Telegraph,) hands down. The pandal is famous because of the pond in front of it. This pond was cleaned by members of the committee after the immersion of their idol. Now its not just theirs – but all the idols of the locality! Not only were LED lights were used instead of normal ones to decrease the power consumption of the pandal (a decorative tent for keeping the idol), they were also given a thumbs-up for their use of bio-degradable materials while making the pandal. Also, lead paints were not used to paint the idols. To prevent the artisans from using the regular paints, (which contain harmful quantities of lead, chromium and cadmium,) around Rs. 3,000,00 ($ 65,000) worth of eco-friendly paint were distributed free of charge in the potter’s hub of Kumartuli, where many of the idols are manufactured. In fact almost two-thirds of the state used the lead free paints for the painting the idols! That’s something!
It almost seemed as if this year’s theme was to encourage a long lost civic sense in the people of Bengal. “We did our best to make it a neat and clean Puja by adopting all the necessary measures specified by authorities, be it banning plastic or preventing anyone from littering. We will also donate funds to Bharat Sevashram Sangha,” says Biman Roy, the secretary of EC Block Abashik Samiti. “We have checked all wires in the pandal and used LEDs to minimise power consumption. The colours used on the idol are all lead-free. We have also made provisions for toilets near the mandap,” Subhashish Chakraborty, the puja committee secretary, was quoted in The Telegraph.
Even the noise pollution levels have gone down this year with many of the committees vowing to keep the decibels at the minimum after a certain time. “We take special care of elderly residents whose children stay away. During Puja, we keep sound levels within the permissible limit, particularly after 10pm. Smoking is banned in the puja area,” says Chandra Banerjee, a member of the puja committee of Golf Towers, a residential complex in the Lake Gardens area, on the southern fringe of Kolkata.
Earlier we had also reported a whole pandal made of recycled PET bottles. The EarthSmiles.net team saw other notable ones – a very green pandal of real grass! Treated paper and other biodegradable and eco-friendly material such as jute were also used in others. It seems as though 2010 is a year of change for Bengal and the new trend has been set in this festive season. Or is it just the spark of a flame that will soon die away? I believe environmentalism has captured the imagination of the people and it is a trend that will soon spread across the country .Only time can tell but as the saying goes- “What Bengal thinks today India thinks tomorrow.”
