Feast of Lord Ganesha and Environmental Impacts Ganesha Chaturthi is celebrated in honour of God Ganesha, the elephant-headed remover of obstacles and the god of beginnings and wisdom. Let me wish all friends a very happy feast with a prayer that God may remove all obstacles from your path and give you His wisdom. What worry me are the environmental impacts of the feast due to emersion of the idol made out of plaster of Paris into lakes, rivers and the sea. Traditionally, the idol was sculpted out of mud. After the festival, it was returned to the earth by immersing it in a nearby water body. However, due to the production of Ganesh idols on a commercial basis, the earthen or natural clay was replaced by Plaster of Paris. Plaster is a man-made material and the chemical paints used to adorn these plaster idols cause water pollution. These increase the level of acidity in the water and the content of heavy metals. Several non-governmental and governmental bodies have been addressing this issue. In Goa, the sale of Ganesh idols made from Plaster of Paris is banned by the State Government. People are urged to buy traditional clay idols made by artisans. Amongst the solutions proposed are as follows: • Return to the traditional use of natural clay idols 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 idols to repaint them and use them again the following year. • Ban on the immersion of plaster idols into lakes, rivers and the sea. • Creative use of other biodegradable materials to create Ganesh idols. • Encouraging people to immerse the idols in tanks of water rather than in natural water bodies.
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 03:57:21 +0000
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