Kandivali society wins dna's eco-Ganesha popular choice award

For the fifth consecutive year, dna held the eco-Ganesha awards night to felicitate individuals and housing societies for the most creative and ingeniously-created idols and decorations. The materials ranged from fairly conventional clay, cloth, paper, wood to the wacky like grass, tissue papers, wheat flour and even stones and mud.

Anuradha Paudwal who was the chief guest at the event, said, "The Ganesh festival is very close to our hearts and so it's very painful to see idol parts strewn upon beaches on the days following visarjan. Therefore, an initiative like this is the need of the hour.""It's very important that the message of eco-friendly idols spreads because the pollution it causes year after year needs to be curbed at the earliest," said daughter Kavita Paudwal. She also anthralled the audience by singing various hymns devoted to Lord Ganesh.

The New Gokul Garden Society from Kandivali won the popular choice award. Amol Parab, part of the winning team, said, "It feels amazing to win this award. Most people use clay for eco-Ganeshas but we used paper mache and we'd like to promote the use of the same because paper is so readily available and this is a great way to recycle paper. In fact, even the colours that we have used are all organic, so we've used turmeric, vermillion, charcoal and ash."

For Biswaranjan Rath, this award has been a source of motivation. "This is the first time I'd gotten an eco-friendly Ganesh idol and to receive an award is greatly rewarding. The cost of clay idols are not much higher than those made with plaster of paris."

Ramesh Kanna, senior marketing manager at Sealed Air India said, "I believe strongly in the idea that we have rented the planet from our future generations and it is, therefore, our duty to ensure that they have access to the same resources and opportunities that we do. This makes Sealed Air very happy that we could be a part of this initiative as a knowledge partner."

There were 10 winners from each category and one from the popular choice award.