This Malad mandal ‘ropes’ in a novel way to celebrate Ganpati

The eight-feet tall Ganpati idol at the Raipada Mitra Mandal in Malad has kept up with the eco-friendly celebrations in the city this year by creating the idol with rope. 

“This year too we decided to use ropes to make the Ganpati idol,” said Sandeep Birvatkar, president of Raipada Mitra Mandal. In the 30 years of the mandal’s Ganpati celebrations, it has gone the eco-friendly way in the last eight years. 

In the last two years the mandal has been making eco-friendly Ganpatis of bamboo and paper cups.

“A 1,000-metre long rope was used along with grass, wooden frames and cotton cloth pieces to support the idol. It took nearly a month to make the idol,” said Siddhant Naik, the artist who made the idol. Naik who is an alumnus of JJ School of Arts made only one Sarvajanik (public) Ganpati this year. “Such idols take time and devotion to be made. We could not make more because of time constraints,” he said.

“The idea is to ensure that the idols are biodegradable and dissolve fast,” said Naik. The mandal spent around Rs 55,000 for the idol. A similar idol in plaster of Paris would have cost up to Rs 30,000. 

Besides promoting eco concerns, the mandal is also creating social awareness related to pregnancy. “There have been a lot of news reports lately about pregnancy and the problems around it. We decided to make people aware about the precautions to be taken before and after delivery,” said Birvatkar.

After 10 days, the idol is immersed in an artificial pond. “We would rather dissemble and give away the rope, but the older generation is against it. Hopefully in the future we will be able to convince them about it,” said Birvatkar.