| .More Stories | New Jail at Kolkata's Alipur!
The conditions are the worse. The jailors even more heartless. The inmates are mute. GO!
Shhhhhchoool Ahead!
A noisy urban environment is made worse by bad planning and carelessness.GO!
Smoke in their eyes
There can be no clean environment where there's dirty smoke.
Today's urban youth know the dangers, so what's preventing them from banishing cigarette from their lives?GO! | | Durga Puja
1(Bengali: দুর্গা পূজা, pronounced [ˈd̪ʊrɡaː ˈpuːdʒaː]; or ‘Worship of Durga’), also referred to as Durgotsava (Bengali: দুর্গোত্সব, ‘Festival of Durga’) is an annual Hindu festival that celebrates worship of the Hindu goddess Durga, mainly by Bengalis.
Eco Immersion
According to a report in The Telegraph, Kolkata, over 10,000 idols are immersed in the river Hooghly each year. And 'despite the administration’s “best efforts” to remove the bamboo and clay structures immediately after immersion' debris remains polluting the river, and important water source for the city.
Some innovative things are being done to prevent pollution - in Naihati and Bhatpara, close to the city, many idols are no longer immersed - instead they are melted with high pressure sprays, after a darpan bisarjan (water from the Ganga is symbolically poured over the goddess’s reflection in a mirror) The report goes on to say that nobody cries blasphemy and even traditionalists admit that religious texts do not prohibit a symbolic immersion. Former Sanskrit College teacher Himangsu Pandit, who heads the team that publishes the almanac Bisudhha Siddhanta Panjika, told the paper that “Once darpan bisarjan is completed, the immersion is technically over.”
Have more ideas for
Green Immersion?
Write in to green@earthsmiles.net
and share your ideas
Are you organising a Puja ? EarthSmiles.net's Eco-Lable, PlanetPointsSM guides you through the steps to make your celebration really Eco-friendly, so you can rest assured your puja is a genuinely green one! Apply at least three months in advance of your event to enable our evaluation team to assist you towards achieving PlanetPointsSM certification. | | .Feedback! |
Something to say on this story? Tell us here!
| | | The festival season in Bengal – starting with Durga Puja1 - comes to life with elaborately constructed pandals, theme pujas and fierce competition for being among the best ones. Several commercial organisations have instituted and sponsor awards to celebrate the best of the best pujas in town, and Puja committees vie for the top honours. Seeing the potential for motivating puja organizers to go green, the government has instituted a special award for eco-friendly puja pandals. The West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB) conducts inspections at Puja pandals to check whether Puja committees are adhering to the environment-friendly directives laid down on them, and every year since 2011, the environment department presents a Green Puja award to those puja committees which properly follows the directives and organizes eco-friendly celebrations. At time of publishing the winning puja was not officially announced on the WBPC website. This year, from amongst the thousands of pandals in Kolkata (Calcutta), Brindaban Matri Mandir, Laketown Adibasi Brinda and Poddar Bagan Sarbojonin Durga Puja showed special attention for planet-friendliness. EarthSmiles.net paid a visit to salute their efforts.  © 2012 EarthSmiles.net . All rights reserved. Made from 100% recycled pixels. Brindaban Matri Mandir Durga Puja, winners of the Sharaad Shiromoni Green Signal Award (2007) embraced their USP of making eco-friendly pandals this year, too. The pandal depicted the remote village of Madaria from the Bankura district, West Bengal in a narrow bylane on Acharya Praffula Chandra Road. Illuminated minimally, the pandal was made of mud and hay, with an interior of Bamboo sticks. Palm leaf fans (taal patar pakha), bottles of “alta”, broken pieces of bricks and stones and mud tiles used in the decoration, were the reused remains of previous years pandals. A ban on carrying plastic bags and packets inside the pandal was imposed by the organisers, and was closely monitored. “Our volunteers are requesting the pandal hoppers not to carry polythene packets inside the pandal… a counter to keep such packets outside the mandap, is being organised,” said Mr Sibendu Nandi, a member of the organising committee. Since the WBPCB started its Green Awards last year, pandals are trying to show green credentials...
Who's the greenest one of all?
By Meera Bhowmick
OCTOBER 2012 |  | | Writing on the wall: A notice in Bengali prohibiting the use of plastic bags in the vicinity. | Members of the organising committee.
Inset: Palm leaf fans used to decorate the pandal. The symbolic use mythological rice-huts (tradition has it if they are neglected, fortune is destroyed,) and plant structures made out of jute and hay depicted the powers of Mother Nature. Stripped bamboo has been used to carefully construct figures, like this cow, and on the walls of the pandal. Travelling further North, Laketown Adibasi Brinda grabs the eye. The pandal is entirely made of jute and stripped bamboo. On being asked about what will become of the jute materials once the pandal is dismantled, a committee member revealed that, “These jute materials will be reused and recycled as gunny bags and sacks.” The use of lead-free colours to paint the idol and the use of dim lights add extra feathers to this eco-friendly puja's metaphorical cap. Thoughtfully, refuse bins were spotted across the pandal area, preventing littering, so common at other pandals. Bamboo was an eco-material of choice, and here, too, showcases artistry with responsibility.  Unlike the big budget pujas down south trying to spread the message of eco-friendliness but failing to abide by eco- friendly norms, due the unnecessary and extravagant use of plastic and electric light; a small eco friendly pandal with a budget of mere four lakh rupees only made heads turn. Poddar Bagan Sarbojonin Durgottsav near Jodhpur Park made their pandal with dry twigs, branches and leaves. The concept using these eco wastes to design various kinds of owls and huge trees left pandal hoppers amazed. So, though the City of Joy showcased environmental awareness an concern, somehow real effort seemed missing… unnecessary use of electric lights, extensive use of thermacol (Styrofoam®), blaring, ear piercing sound systems, unwise usage of plastic and ways of disposal of used materials in most puja pandals - including those touting eco-friendliness - shouts loud for the need of environmental education that goes beyond the cosmetic. |
