my friend Green Ganesha

Ganesha Chaturthi is the birthday of Lord Ganesha who is widely worshiped as the god of wisdom, prosperity and good fortune. I love the way it is celebrated together by all the people. Particularly in Hyderabad, I love to see the religious tolerance among the people during these hugely celebrated festivals of Ganesha, Holi and Bonaalu. This is my fourth Ganesh festival in Hyderabad. I still remember the huge Ganesha at khairatabad I saw with my friend Surya, 3 years back in 2007. I fondly recollect kittu(one of my cousins) dancing on the stage for Ganesh Fest held at their colony, me and my cousins encouraging him. That was really a great fun. Even last year, Ganesh festival celebrated at NICMAR was awesome. I didn't participate in it actively, but I enjoyed the way they celebrated. Here I have to mention the efforts of Indian freedom fighter and social reformer Lokmanya Tilak who transformed the annual festival into a large, well-organized public event to bridge the gap between different sects of people in our society.Tilak recognized the wide appeal of the deity Ganesh as "the god for everybody" and popularized Ganesh Chaturthi as a national festival in order to build united India, and generate nationalistic fervor among people against the British colonial rule.

Under Tilak's encouragement, the festival facilitated community participation and involvement in the form of intellectual discourses, poetry recitals, performances of plays, musical concerts, and folk dances. It served as a meeting ground for people of all castes and communities in times when, in order to exercise control over the population, the British discouraged social and political gatherings. Anyways, this is the history and today, the most serious impact of the Ganesh festival on the natural environment is the immersion of icons made of Plaster of Paris into lakes, rivers and the sea. Traditionally, the Ganesh icon was sculpted out of earth taken from nearby one’s home. After worshiping the divinity in this earth icon, it was returned back to the Earth by immersing it in a nearby water body. This cycle represented the cycle of creation and dissolution in Nature.

However, as the production of Ganesh icons on a commercial basis grew, the earthen or natural clay was replaced by Plaster of Paris. This plaster takes much longer to dissolve and in the process of dissolution releases toxic elements into the water body. The chemical paints used to adorn these plaster icons themselves contain heavy metals like mercury and cadmium.On the final day of the Ganesh festival thousands of plaster icons are immersed into water bodies by devotees. These increase the level of acidity in the water and the content of heavy metals. The day after the immersion, shoals of dead fish can be seen floating on the surface of the water body as a result of this sudden increase.

Thanks to go green activists!!! People are understanding the importance of
Eco friendliness and even adopting these green concepts in religious affairs. The clay idols of Ganesha, the natural colours for holi, etc,.One more thing , the pooja vidhaan of Ganesha chaturthi also suggests the clay idol as the best for worship. I read somewhere that GHMC has announced some prize for the best Eco friendly Ganesha in the city. This is a great way for promoting Green Ganesha. Not only the huge Idols in the colonies, the smaller ones worshiped at our home should be Eco friendly. We are praying Ganesha for health and wealth and we should contribute from our side. Am I right!!!