| .More Stories | Wild Week!
This year, India Wildlife Week and World Wildlife Week stretch between 1-8 October! GO!
Park blooms again
A Lilly Pool Park rises from
the ruins.GO!
Grown by nature
Eat natural, really natural! Organic stores ensure you get genuine, certified organic food products. GO! Cold Coffees
A coffee chain is cold about its cups, and the consumer and planet, lose. GO! | | |
Real Green Pujas!
With growing consciousness about environmental risk, some Kolkata pujas have come up with an innovative solution to this problem - the“green-themed Durga Puja”. A list of few of them:
1. Mahatirtham Durgotsav committee
This year Mahatirtham Durgotsav is stepping into its 8th year with the theme - GO GREEN... ZERO EMISSION DURGA PUJA!! This year the puja pandal has been designed using solar panels and will be able to generate all the electricity required to illuminate the area during the four days of Durga puja. Interiors will be done using re-cycled and re-usable materials. LED lights will be used for decoration of the pandal as well as streets which will run on electricity generated by the solar cells.
2. Barisha Sarbojanin Durgoutsav committee has planned to construct their Pandal structure by eco-friendly items like the “Pat-Kati”, coconut ropes, bamboo frameworks and various handicrafts articles.
3. 66 Pally - The theme at 66 Pally is ‘global warming.’ The menace of global warming, shortage of water and the ways to combat it will be portrayed.
4. Belgachia Sarbojanin Durgotsab - Pollution is raking havoc on our fragile eco system. Already we are facing reduced rainfalls. The rivers are losing their water content and depth, which have far flung consequences. Is it possible, that in future, even the large rivers will be incapable of carrying even boats? The committee is contemplating this thought, and has built their puja around this thought. They have also got a dozen of real boats in the pandal for depicting their thoughts.
5. Dum Dum Park Bharat Chakra -The entire pandal is themed to use of solar energy for producing electricity. Even in the night, it will feel like day, and in the day, it will be a wonder to see how solar light can be used.
6. Salt Lake AK Block - Their theme is to bring forward the concept of global warming and tuning ourselves to eco friendly means. Not unique, but still worth visiting, especially if you are visiting salt lake.
7. Salt Lake A J Block - The theme this year is 'Jole and abong Jele', meaning water and the fishermen. If one sees, the deity is made from clay of the water, and ends at the waters at bisarjan. The fishermen also have a special role, as they perform many functions related to the puja. Moreover, water is the source and reason of all life forms in this planet. The organizers aim to put forward this concept in this puja.
We all must learn a lesson from these communities who are combining the celebration of Durga Puja with some steps to protect the environment – a wonderful way to carry the message across. After all we don’t own our nature, but we owe it. | | .Feedback! |
Something to say on this story? Tell us here!
|  © 2012 EarthSmiles.net . All rights reserved. Made from 100% recycled pixels. Pollution from Puja festivities are around the corner... or are they?
Green Pujas in sight?
By Divya Dhamija
OCTOBER 2012 | | | | Godly request? A West Bengal Pollution Control Board hoarding, put up a few months before the festival season, asking artisians not to use toxic lead paint in idols. | It’s the time of the year when festival fever in Kolkata (Calcutta) reaches its zenith, and Durga Puja – that celebrates the godess Durga - is that peak. Old and young gear up for this eagerly awaited festival with childlike enthusiasm – all which makes 'Durgotsav' an event of beauty and glory. But festivals are getting past tradition and becoming more and more commercialised and the competition to have the most gigantic and brightest, attractive idols to compete with other communities ones, which unfortunately,due to materials available in is leading to environmental pollution. Environmentalists say the idols are usually made from non-biodegradable materials such as plastic, cement and Plaster of Paris (a chalk-like powder made from gypsum, used as a wall coating in construction), and are painted using toxic dyes which do not dissolve easily and reduce the oxygen level in the water resulting in the death of fishes and other aquatic lives. The paints used contain heavy metals such as mercury, chromium and lead which are poisonous, and since the idols are immersed in the Hooghly River after the festivities, they are an alarming pollutant. Drinking water may also be affected. In order to come out of such problems and enjoy the festival with the same spirit, devotees should give a serious thought of turning eco-friendly. Though the Government is yet to take some firm steps on this issue the West Bengal environment ministry has been publicising the ill effects and entreating the craftsmen to use more eco-friendly materials. But strict guidelines for craftsmen to use eco-friendly materials and organic paints are yet to me set. However, the Environment Department is trying to phase out all toxic content from paints by 2013 and is even providing them for free this year, as a start.  An artisan creates idols or straw and clay. These could be painted toxic... Local businessman Dipankar Chakravarty says, “My family and I have been celebrating Durga Puja for the last 20 years, and we have always been celebrating according to the traditions. It is always an idol made from mud which is worshipped. People must learn to do their bit to preserve their environment.” Going back to traditional materials may be a partial answer, and several other non-governmental and governmental bodies have proposed this among other solutions to tackle the problem: • Return to the traditional use of natural clay icons and immerse the icon in a bucket of water at home.
• Use of a permanent icon made of stone and brass, used every year and a symbolic immersion only.
• Recycling of plaster icons to repaint them and use them again the following year.
• Ban on the immersion of plaster icons into lakes, rivers and the sea.
• Creative use of other biodegradable materials such as paper Mache to create idols. Hopefully, Puja organizers would keep these guidelines in mind to maintain cleanliness and preserve environmental health. Happy, green, Pujas!  |
