From picking eco-friendly idols to paper decorations, NRIs in Pune choose the green way

This Ganeshotsav, while we gear up to enjoy the festivities at home, there are many who are far away from home. However, this doesn’t stop them from celebrating the festival. The demand for eco-friendly idols and plastic-free decorations has increased, this year.

Lolita Gupta, who leads the Ganesh campaign at Ecoexist, shared that the organisation sent out 55 idols, made of either paper mache or clay, to various countries this year. Gupta adds, “Like every year, we made eco-friendly idols that are easy to dissolve. We have also introduced eco-friendly makars made of corrugated paper that can be assembled and disassembled at will . It can be kept for use next year too. This was a collaborative project between eCoexist, Corugami and Divya Jyoti,an architect who studied the traditional Ganesh temples in Pune to come up with the design. This way NRIs can show how the temples of Pune look like.”

Grahak Peth, Tilak road that has been sending original shadu/clay idols abroad for many years, did not do so directly this year. Suryakant Pathak, Grahak Peth, said, “This year, unfortunately we haven’t been able to send idols directly because handling was becoming an issue. So courier companies have done it on our behalf.”

Girish Murudkar, Murudkar Zendewale shared that like every year they sent decorations such as uparna (shawl), pheta (turbans) and other things required for the festival to other countries, this year too.