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Ganesh Chaturthi: Lucknow devotees go for green Ganesha idols
“Many customers are preferring soil-based idols. Even small artificial colours or plastic decoration used in the idols are being avoided by the customers, especially the younger ones,” said Aakash Kumar, an idol seller.
As the city is filled with festive spirit ahead of Ganesh Chaturthi to be celebrated on Wednesday, there is huge rush of devotees thronging the roadside stalls in the markets to take the Ganpati idols to their homes.
Amid the festivity, however, the devotees are making it a point to keep conservation of environment as their top priority while choosing the idol of Lord Ganesha despite such idols being costly.
Tanisha Chandran, a customer, has decided to take home an eco-friendly Ganesha this time even though it was less colourful and less attractive.
“The environment is more important to me than colours. We are taking a step toward sustainable development by purchasing eco-friendly Ganesha. We’ll keep it in our plant pots after the puja,” she explained.
Anisha, the other customer outside the shops near IT College, too prefers to buy eco-friendly Ganesha. As she thinks, this way she can encourage others in her society to buy the environment-friendly idol.
“Many customers are preferring soil-based idols. Even small artificial colours or plastic decoration used in the idols are being avoided by the customers, especially the younger ones,” said Aakash Kumar, an idol seller near Kapoorthala.
Eco-friendly idols are costly but customers are preferring them. If the cost of a 2.5 feet eco-friendly idol is ₹2,500, the normal idol of the same height is Rs1,800, said Atul Chaudhary, a shopkeeper near Vikas Nagar.
The majority of the Ganesh idols are imported from Mumbai and Kolkata. The Kolkata-based idols are generally soil-based and eco-friendly, whereas those from Mumbai are made of POP (Plaster of Paris), informed Atul.
Rakesh Kumar, a shopkeeper near IT College said that the sale of idols was way better this time, and people were coming in large numbers. The number is expected to rise on Tuesday evening, he said.
“60% of the products in my shop are already booked as people have decided to take them home on Wednesday,” he said.
“Last year we could not set up any stalls fearing that no one would turn up, but this year we have set up stalls and the sale was impressive last evening,” said Dharmendra Kumar, an idol seller near Kursi Road. “The sale is expected to increase during the last hours,” he said.
