Monthly Archives: April 2020

Ganesha is viewed as the Lord of wisdom and consistently every year the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated with extreme devotion and enthusiasm. Yet, the most genuine effect of the Ganesh Chaturthi on environment is because of the drenching of idols. The inundation of idols made out of compound materials causes huge pollution. The utilization of thermocol and plastic in pandals just as for garlands and different adornments increases non-biodegradable waste. This celebration symbolizes togetherness as number of individuals meet up to celebrate this festival on a grand and large scale. In any case, nowadays this celebration is raising the burning issue of Environmental Pollution. Hence to celebrate this festival with all positive energy for the environment there are few steps needed to take while celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi; Eco friendly Decoration: In festivals generally individuals by and large utilize plastic and non-degradable material. These materials add more risk to our environment when dumped as trash later. We can use rather flowers made of paper or natural blossoms for decoration. Natural materials like fabric, wood, paper can be utilized to decorate around Ganpati idols. Use reused paper/Newspaper design rather than thermocol, which is likewise not degradable. Limit number of public pandals: More pandals implies more noise and more contamination, instead of individual festival favours community celebration. This will guarantee diminished expense of festival; paper contamination in a limited space and when compared with individual celebration, community celebration will cause less water and noise pollution. Building a Compost pit for organic material: Gather separately after the celebrations, the offerings of blossoms/flowers, garlands frequently called "Nirmalya" and other natural material and put them in a community built fertilizer/compost pit. This manure material can be utilized to prepare your own nursery. In any case if you must immerse them, cover them by papers rather than polythene packs as paper is biodegradable. Dried flowers like marigold, hibiscus and others can be utilized later to make natural colours or decorative paper for gifts. Recycle the Waste: There are few things that can be done while thinking about how to recycle. The first one is Reduce, it is the best way to manage waste. The second is Reuse products in different ways. And the third is to Recycle the Ganesh festival flowers and festival leftovers is another way to manage waste. Create natural colours from flowers, for example, marigold, hibiscus and other festival extras that can be utilized to make manure. All these methods help to cut down on the amount of waste we throw away after the festival is over. Say no to using Plaster of Paris or hazardous chemicals: Assure this Ganesh Festival, you Go Green with worshiping eco-friendly Ganesha idol and also assure refraining from utilizing Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols made of harmful substance. These materials include more harm to nature. Rather settle for clay. The material utilized for idols like Plaster of Paris (POP) mostly has the compound of gypsum, sulfur, phosphorus and magnesium. Synthetic paints contain mercury, cadmium, lead and carbon. Immersion of idols with such harmful and poisonous components raises the degree of harmful effects it will have on the mother nature. Symbolic immersion: Rather than inundating Ganesh idol in a water body, it very well may be symbolically immersed at home. A few people utilize a metal or stone idol and symbolically immerse this in a pail of water, or even carry it to the sea, hold it under the water, and afterward bring it back home for the following year. Another method for immersing can be sprinkling a couple of drops of water on the idol and afterward clearing it off and saving it for the following year's worshiping. One very environment friendly thing that can be done is, the idol can be made of red soil with seeds in it which after immersion grows into a plant.

Isn't it odd that the Lord himself who was conceived from mud and the sweat of his mother, the lord who was born from the dirt and is ought to return to the dirt, is presently considered liable for tremendous contamination?

The idea of Ganesha visarjan itself is eco-friendly as it portrays Moksha and how everything, in the long run, disintegrates in nature. According to the tradition, only clay idols of Ganesha ought to be worshiped and drenched in water. In any case, today, similar to every other thing, Ganesha's idols also have been commercialized. Eventually today, the clay idols have been replaced by the Plaster of Paris idols due to commercialization. These idols are ideally responsible for the reduction of oxygen level in the water that later kills the fishes and other aquatic species as the Plaster of Paris idols are made of chemical and other synthetic paints.

In the Arabian Sea off the Mumbai coasts every year there are over 1.5 lakh idols immersed leading to the fall of oxygen level in the sea by 50 percent right after the festival.

Well, the reason why people bring home these POP idols are that they are cheaper and are easily available in the market in comparison to the eco-friendly Ganesha Idols. These POP idols fail the traditional concept of Ganesh Chaturthi, as the idols do not easily dissolve in water and the remains are collected by the local government resulting in demolishing the idols with bulldozers.

To enlighten the reason as to why an eco-friendly idol costs more than a POP idol, the reason being too many POP idols are easily available in the market with not much time to spend. If it is to be believed, POP idols are much easier to carve and set into the shape which can save much of the time and money of the artisans. In comparison to the POP idols, an eco-friendly idol holds the increased cost of raw material and transportation for the rise. Eco-friendly colours and unadulterated mud is being utilized by craftsmen to make sure that the environment is not being harmed.

Many citizens do understand the effect these POP idols have on the environment and hence are opting for an eco-friendly Ganesha Idol. But the number of users is very less and the reason being the price. While a Pop idol costs somewhere around Rs.500, a clay idol of the same size and design costs from 900-1000Rs. PoP idols might be cheaper today, yet somehow is destroying our environment for the near future. Being responsible citizens let us understand the need to save our environment by bringing home eco-friendly Ganesha.

Tree Ganesha understands the responsibility as the citizen and the need to protect our environment, hence celebrates Eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi and plantation of trees at the same time.

India has always been in the highlights for its adverse situations in its big cities of the country when it comes to pollution and we are well aware about the situation of pollution in India. The problem has always been there, and yet somehow gone unnoticed. Well, one such reason for the pollution in India is the biggest and the most awaited festival of the year, Ganesh Chaturthi. On Ganesh Chaturthi, numerous devotees or worshipers bring Ganapati idols for ten days. In those ten days individuals visit family members, nearby Ganesh mandaps. Moreover devotees listen to spiritual songs and offer flowers, Modak, Durva and many more. The day ends with singing Aarti to pay tribute to Ganapati, other gods and holy people. Despite the fact that Ganesh Chaturthi celebrated all over in India, the most extreme energy is found in Maharashtra State. While observing Ganesh Festival individuals largely disregard natural effect of contamination on Air, Water, Noise, strong Waste, and so forth brought about by different exercises acted in puja. During this celebration, firecrackers are utilized profusely by the devotees as it is their way of expressing happiness which leads to air pollution as it releases harmful substances and toxic materials. While the devotees sing aarti to pay tribute, this prestigious festival is also celebrated with all means of loud music be it bhajjan played on speakers or welcoming the mighty lord Ganesha with Dhol. All this does give the devotees joy and happiness but this directly affects the elderly and the children as at some point the noise level may also increase to extreme. During the festival, huge traffic is witnessed that leads to air and noise pollution at its peak. As most idols are produced using Plaster of Paris and toxics, non-biodegradable chemical colours, the result of which ends up causing harm to the marine life. Considering the environmental situation and; with the aim and initiative to decrease the natural harm, numerous devotees have started introducing Ganesha idols that are both creative and eco-friendly. Numerous idols across the nation are made with Plaster of Paris (PoP), at times with little amounts of plastic and concrete. PoP contains calcium sulphate hemihydrate, a material that takes anywhere between months and years to completely dissolve in water. With being done, it diminishes oxygen levels in the water, executing the fish and other amphibian life. Not only are the idols created using Pop but the idols are also painted with bright colours that contain heavy metals, such as lead, nickel, cadmium and mercury. The use of such metals can in turn affect the PH balance of the water that makes the water further more acidic and poisoning for the inhabitants. When such materials meet the water body it can cause skin diseases to a human life when they come in contact to the water and also poison the humans through the fish and birds eaten as food from these water bodies. Moreover, it is necessary to note that the idols are immersed with a lot of other polluting materials which can also be termed as solid wate like the flowers, plastic decorations, camphor, and even polystyrene also known as thermocol which is used for decoration. This strong waste at the end winds up in water bodies, further stressing our effectively contaminated waterways and lakes. Indeed, even the flowers, which are typically bio-degradable, frequently have pesticides and manures that leech into the water. This contamination has different impacts. The strong waste hinders the normal flow of water; which can cause stagnation and the reproducing of mosquitoes and other hurtful pets. With no place to go, the water winds up being additionally contaminated by different types of waste. The final result is the tremendous amount of water contamination that harms our water bodies for quite a long time.

So, what can be done and what we need to do to create a balance between the celebration of the festival and also to protect our environment is that we can bring home or create one ourselves, an organic eco-friendly idol that dissolves easily in the water. These idols can be decorated using food colours and also have things embedded in them that would serve for the benefit of the environment. As we can create an eco-friendly Ganesha idol ourself and even if not, avoid using public water bodies like tanks and lakes especially when it comes to the household idols, instead we can do the visarjan or immerse the eco-friendly Ganesha idol at home so that we put less pressure on the water bodies which already is under pressure due to the stagnations over the years and the contamination of the water bodies, ultimately protecting the environment. As a festival should always be joyous, blissful and delightful, Tree Ganesha encourages you to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi favourable not only for you but for the environment as well, by worshiping an Eco- friendly Ganesha idol and celebrating in a zero pollution way.

Ganesh Chaturthi, a festival celebrated across India to respect Lord Ganesha, is turning out to be eco- friendlier nowadays. Generally, Ganesha idols, made of Plaster of Paris, are drenched in water during this celebration, which ruins the water. Be that as it may, numerous individuals presently appreciate the significance of worshipping eco-friendly Ganesha idols. With the tremendous number of individuals celebrating the occasion, it appears to be hard to put forward the significance of worshipping eco- friendly Ganesh idols. Well, the distinction in the cost of idols is the primary explanation. It is something that we can accomplish for our condition as responsible citizens. Plaster of Paris is non- biodegradable and it gravely influences the sea life and water bodies. To spare and secure our condition, one of the fundamental responses for the query why you should worship eco-friendly Ganesh idol is that with unclean and messy water, people will likewise get tainted with hazardous diseases. Plaster of Paris and other counterfeit hues can cause medical problems. There have been reports of rising corrosive and poisonous quality levels in water bodies, notwithstanding the expanding levels of a metal substance, which can cause a permanent hazard and leave long haul harm to life on Earth, including human lives. Avoid celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with Pop idols and visarjan of such Ganesh Idols in the water body. Worshipping eco-friendly idols produced that are made of red soil can heal water bodies and can help to keep the water clean. By celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with eco-friendly idols made with grey soil (shadu mitti) or red soil, you can fathom this issue faced by the environment. All That Glitters Is Not Gold; this expression goes well for the Ganesh idols. There are numerous sparkles and metals used to make Ganesh idols that are unsafe to the body when it interacts with it. This can cause sensitivity and other medical problems because of the nearness of chemicals. Eco-friendly Ganesh idols are not brightened with any such sparkles. On the off chance that you need a Ganesh Idol of plaster of Paris, you may need to rely upon the craftsman. Be that as it may, on account of eco-friendly idols, you can make one yourself with the assistance of your relatives. It spreads more bliss and agreement in the family and among the individuals from the family. The holding of the family is one of the significant elements of worshipping eco-friendly Ganesh idols. Why you should worship eco-friendly Ganesh idols? All things considered, the appropriate response is basic, Eco-friendly idols can be made with things that are effectively accessible at home. With the expansion in a number of individuals who support or love nature, eco-friendly Ganesh idols are effectively accessible in the market also. Along these lines, have a safe and blissful eco-friendly Ganesh Chaturthi by worshipping eco-friendly Ganesh idols and helping the earth practice environmental safety once more. We should hold hands and do our bit, and go eco-friendly.

5 Benefits of eco-friendly Ganesh idol Tree Ganesha.

1. Made from red soil, organic fertilizer & seeds

2. Symbolic visarjan (Home visarjan)

3. Eco-friendly visarjan and plantation one at a time

4. It can purify air pollution

5. It can reduce water pollution

Half eco-friendly knowledge is a dangerous thing

Half eco-friendly knowledge is a dangerous thing.

Idol made from the soil is not enough

PROBLEM

Soil: Idol made from insoluble material (POP) creates water pollution.

Gold colour: Gold colour acts like poison for aquatic species.

Diamonds: Diamonds act like a knife, it damages inner parts of fishes after sawing.

Visarjan: Avoid doing visarjan in the water bodies such as lakes, rivers, sea.

After Visarajan: Visarjan is not an end...

SOLUTION

Soil: Go for an idol made of eco-friendly.

Gold colour: Prefer without a gold-colored idol.

Diamonds: Prefer without diamonds and glittered idol.

Visarjan: Do home visarjan and make it a tradition.

After Visarajan: It will support nature and expand greenery.