Doll or Idol or Ideal... Which Worship?

This is a campaign to create an awareness to the public to make the festival of Ganesha Chatruthi environmentally sensitive and non polluting... Not to criticize any one or religion personally...

Decorating Ganesha ...

Holy dip along with Ganesha ...

Devotes immersing Ganesha ...

Day after immersion...

Would you like your GOD's bulldozed like garbage...???

and treated like this...

or dumped like this...

Left to rot for scavengers to feast...???

Lying at your feet... Helpless.... Abandoned by worshippers....

Maimed? Desecrated? And you create a hue and cry when some statue in the city gets desecrated?

 

Was that statue a GOD, or Is this GOD only a statue? Decide yourself...

Environmental Impact Of Ganesh Chatruthi

This festival, brings together thousands of people but in modern times is also contributing to serious environmental pollution. Besides the noise created by the several Ganesh mandals during the festival, the immersion of idols made out of chemical materials causes significant water pollution. The traditional mud idols have been replaced by plaster of paris statues which are then painted using toxic chemical dyes to make them bright and attractive to buyers. These materials poison water bodies, by increasing chemical and organic content. In the process, ecosystems in these water bodies gate harmed and plant and fish species die in large numbers. Water that has been polluted in this way can cause diseases when drunk by people living downstream.

The Problems

The materials used to make some Ganesh idols may be toxic!

Plaster of paris contains gypsum, sulphur, phosphorus and magnesium
Chemical paints contain mercury, cadmium, lead and carbon

Immersion of these can poison the waters of lakes, rivers and the sea by increasing acidity, increasing solid matter, increasing organic matter, increasing content of heavy metals. Such pollution damages the ecosystem by killing the fishes, damaging the plants, blocking the natural flow of the water and causing stagnation and damages health by polluting drinking water sources causing breathing problems, blood diseases and skin diseases...

The Alternatives

Use permanent idols made of brass or stone, do a symbolic immersion. Reuse the same idol again the next year.
Use a small unpainted idol made of unbaked clay and immerse the idol in a tub or a water tank.
Collect the flowers and compost them, avoid the use of thermocoal and plastic in decorations.

Several groups are now developing eco sensitive Ganesh idols that do not pollute. Amongst the materials that people are experimenting with there are idols made out of recycled waste paper, natural clay and other natural fibres.

Let's go green... Solve global warming...

Happy Vinayaka Chatruthi :-)

May the blessings of Lord Ganesh be with you always...