Pramod Palav, an artist from Kankavli, Sindhudurg, has proved that the height of an idol cannot be an excuse not to use environmentally friendly material. He has designed a 21-foot-tall Ganpati idol from shaadu maati (clay) and sap of ficus for a mandal in Andheri which he claims will dissolve in 15 minutes.
Apart from this, Palav has made two small eco-friendly Ganpati idols and a 6-foot-tall Ganesha using the same material.
Impressed with his work, the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) authorities requested the National Environment Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) to find out if the material used by Palav was totally eco-friendly. “He has done a great job in making such an eco-friendly idol. It is the need of the hour to prevent pollution. We informally asked NEERI to check the material,” said Sanjay Bhuskute, spokesperson, MPCB.
Palav has accepted four other orders from mandals in the city to make eco-friendly Ganpati idols. “It is a question of hard work. Most idol makers don’t want to work hard, but want more money. That is the reason they say it is not possible to make a tall idol without using Plaster of Paris (PoP),” Palav said. He plans to organise a workshop in Mumbai next year to spread awareness about eco-friendly idols.
“I have proved for the second time that making such tall idols with eco-friendly material is not a problem. I also made 800 small idols because there is a lot of demand. Safety is not an issue if the idol is made properly. But there are very few artists left. Most of those making idols today are mere workers who use PoP,” he said.
The civic body and the Brihanmumbai Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Samanvay Samiti introduced the idea of using eco-friendly natural dyes for Ganpati idols.
They also appealed to the mandals to restrict the height of idols to 10-12 feet. But most mandals refused to follow the directives.
“Last week, I went to 2-3 workshops in the city to inquire about the material they used. They showed me idols made from PoP and said they were eco-friendly models. On pointing out that the idols were not eco-friendly, they began arguing. They are fooling people by selling those idols as eco-friendly ones,” Palav told DNA.
There are others, however, who insist on having an eco-friendly idol. “We are the first mandal in the city to have a 21-foot-tall eco-friendly Ganpati idol. We immersed the idol in an artificial pond last year. It took just 15 minutes for the idol to dissolve in water,” said Nilesh Thange, president, Kranti Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav Mandal, Koldongri in Andheri.
According to the BMC, 9,904 Ganpati idols from sarvajanik mandals and more than 1,70,000 idols from people’s homes are immersed in Mumbai every year. Of these, most sarvajanik idols are 10-15-foot tall, while some are as high as 20-25 feet. Most of them are made of PoP.
It is easy to distinguish a PoP idol from an eco-friendly one. There is a ringing buzz when you tap a PoP idol; that is not the case with an eco-friendly idol. Also, an eco-friendly idol is light in weight.
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