Added to this, the immersion of Ganesha idols in water bodies goes unabated. The destruction cannot even be described. The POP Ganeshas take a lot of time to dissolve in water, but even when they do, they leave a lot lead and heavy metal residue. You can read more about this in this blog. In a week or ten days, almost all water bodies are clogged leading to stagnation. Just imagine the money that needs to be spent on infrastructure, earth movers, and sanitation trucks to clean the mess!

The questions we really need to ask ourselves are these – Do we need this? Can we reduce the garbage load on our city this year by bidding farewell to Ganesha at home?

YOU CAN TAKE ACTION NOW!

As responsible citizens, we need to stop contaminating the water bodies, destroying nature to become protectors of nature, natural resources (air and water) and the life around these lakes. To start with you can choose to buy an idol made of clay in your local markets – plain clay idols, idols that contain seeds Ganesha. Better still, you can buy an idol that will have a positive in the future too. And that’s exactly what the Plant a Ganesha idol will allow you to do. Brought to you by Live the Lakes initiative of SAHE, this clay Ganesha comes with a small sapling.

Once you are done with your prayers, you can plant it in a gamla in your balcony or pit in your home, or in your vicinity and take care of the plant.

We urge you to view this video and spread the word: https://www.facebook.com/137609363487934/videos/148589075723296/ < PLEASE EMBED THE VIDEO>

Our city and our children will thank you.

The post Respect the Environment and Your Bhakthi appeared first on SAHE : Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour.

Once set at the altar, the puja would begin with friends and relatives in attendance. Puja complete, we would stuff ourselves silly with delicacies mom made and then spend the afternoon in food coma. Come evening, we would visit the few pandals in the neighbourhood. Visarjan (days earmarked for immersion) meant that we took the idol to be immersed in the sea and that was that.

This is very different from my experience now – I just go to the market, select a small, yet colourfully decorated idol and an umbrella made of plastic or shiny gold thread. While the eating and meeting family remains almost the same, almost all festivals have become bigger and brighter recently. This is most true for festivals like Ganesha chaturthi, durga puja, and diwali. People vie with each other for the bigger, brighter, and more colourful idols to probably to show they are more devout.

Sample this – in Hyderabad, 4,000 metric tons of garbage is produced every day. During Ganesh festival alone 3,000 more metric tonnes of garbage is added every single day. This amounts to about 7,200 metric tonnes of garbage which needs 3,000 labourers deployed on three shifts using 94,000 plastic bags to collect garbage. Just imagine the money spent on infrastructure, earth movers, and trips made by sanitation trucks every day!

With the widespread immersion of Ganesha idols, a good number of lakes in India are increasingly polluted. This issue is becoming more and more important to environment particularly with respect to environment, human health, and flora and fauna present in the river. It is ironic that after praying to Ganesha, we cause such terrible damage to the water bodies by immersing these toxic, painted idols and killing aquatic life!

Let’s take a quick look at the most damaging consequences of our favourite festival:

Non-biodegradable idols

The most damage comes from idols made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) that may take several months or years to fully dissolve. In addition, the chemical paints used to decorate the idols contain heavy metals like mercury, cadmium and lead (neurotoxin and nephrotoxin), which seep into the water as the idol dissolves. These metals are bio-accumulative, which means that they enter marine life, get passed up the food chain, and end up in our food.

In some cases, the idols are painted with bright synthetic colours or lead oxide mixed with oils which are toxic. The brighter the colour, the greater the toxicity. Red, blue, orange and green colours are known to have higher content of mercury, zinc oxide, chromium and lead. In fact, a single drop of mercury on a person’s skin can be fatal; a drop in a 20-acre lake can make the fish poisonous to the birds and animals, and people who eat them.

Decorations at the altar

Another potential threat is in the use of non-biodegradable decorations made of wood, stone, grass, jute, thermacol, plastic, flowers, germinated seeds, coconuts, leaves etc. The problem is multiplied when these decorations are immersed along with the idol. Such material may contain organic and inorganic pollutants including oil, grease, plastics, and suspended solids that impact the water quality as they decay.

Visarjan days

These days, visarjan means huge trucks and tempos to transport the idols for immersion. Typically, these processions are taken by members of the community playing loud music, and sometimes include bursting firecrackers. Almost all lakes on such days look like a war zone, with people milling all around, with hydraulic cranes used for lowering the Ganesha idols for immersion.  A delayed, but glaring issue is that these huge idols block the natural flow of water causing stagnation, further causing more harm to the environment.

So what is the solution to overcoming the above problems?

• Firstly, buy an eco-friendly clay or Plant a Ganesha Alternatively, you can use idols made of recycled waste paper, natural clay, natural fibres, brass, or stone.
• If you buy a Plant a Ganesha idol, do a symbolic immersion if possible.
• Limit the size and number of Ganesh idols in your community, focussing more on purity of the festival.
• Use natural biodegradable colours for Rangoli (turmeric, henna, and rice powder).
• Use paper flowers or natural flowers for decorations.
• Collect the biodegradable decorations and compost them. You can use these to grown your garden in the future.
• Ban plastic in the place of worship or even to carry offerings. You can use cloth bags instead.
• Avoid the use of thermocol and plastic in decorations.
• Minimise noise and air pollution.

The Plant a Ganesha idol is brought to you by Live the Lakes initiative of SAHE. Please watch this video to know about how you can make this wonderful Ganesha at home! Celebrate the festival with consciousness to the environment!

The post Say No to POP Ganesha idols this year! appeared first on SAHE : Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour.

Let’s step up and celebrate an eco-friendly Ganesha chaturthi this year!

In the past few months, our team has been working tirelessly with the community, volunteers, and government officials to save the lakes of Hyderabad one lake at a time. If you have been following our Facebook page, you can see the progress we are making each day.

While we focussed our efforts on restoring lakes and the ecosystem around them, we also want to work on prevent further damage to the lakes. And that’s why the upcoming Ganesha festival is cause for rejoicing and worry too. Today, more and more communities are coming together to put up big and colourful Ganesha idols. Competitions for the most elaborate pandals are only increasing the magnitude of celebrations across the city.

Unfortunately, after ten days of extravagant celebration of welcoming, worshipping and bidding farewell to the beloved elephant-headed Ganesha, the lakes in the city resemble the shambles of a battle field. Thousands of idols of Lord Ganesha decay in a sludge of flowers, incense, fruits, coconuts, leaves, stones, clay, jute, bamboo, clothes and food, with a cloud of mosquitoes and flies swarming above it. For example, In 2016, the level of pollution levels in the iconic Hussain sagar Lake reached monstrous proportions. About 50,000 idols were immersed during Ganesh Chaturthi. Most of the idols were made of Plaster of Paris (PoP) and painted with metallic paints containing heavy metals. These metals seep up to three metres into the lakebed thereby poisoning aquatic life.

Last year, post immersion, the pH value in Hussain sagar lake shot to 9 (normal range is between 7.4 and 7.9), turbidity or cloudiness of water in the lake, shot to 72 (normal is between 17 to 48), total dissolved solids shot up to 1,126 (normal is 652), dissolved oxygen between 3 and 7.2 (normal range is between 8.5 to 5.2), and chemical oxygen demand (COD) went up to 289 (from 249). In effect, this lake is unfit for human use, and will cause severe health issues for animals and birds.

Here are some facts related to pollution caused by the statues of Ganesha:

• Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols take months, or maybe even years to dissolve
• Oxygen level in water comes down, killing fish and other aquatic life
• Most paints contain heavy metals like mercury and lead which seep into the water
• The acid content in water increases
• Idols made of (or containing) plastic, cement, etc., do not dissolve, they clog the lake beds
• Most accessories like plastic flowers, cloth, incense, camphor and miscellaneous items only pollute the water bodies more
• The bigger idols clog the natural flow of water resulting in mosquitoes and other pests breeding

While the above data is from Hyderabad’s biggest water body, the status of other water bodies is sometimes the same or worse.

Can we afford to continue doing this to our water bodies? What can we all do to celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi without harming environment so much?

Well, to start with, you can make the choice of buying an eco-friendly Ganesha that doesn’t contain these harmful substances. Better still, you can buy an idol that will have a positive in the future too. And that’s exactly what the Plant a Ganesha idol will allow you to do. Brought to you by Live the Lakes initiative of SAHE, this clay Ganesha comes with a small sapling.

All you need to do is:

That’s not all… You can enjoy more as a family by adding the sapling pockets behind the clay Ganesha or even attach a pot sliced in half to the Ganesha with fresh clay or M seal as a do-it-yourself project. We are sure this activity will be more fulfilling as a family!

Don’t just pray to Ganesha, Plant a Ganesha this year!!

The post Eco-friendly Ganesha appeared first on SAHE : Society for Advancement of Human Endeavour.