Eco-friendly Durga idols find many takers in Sangam city

To prevent water pollution after idol immersion, a group of six artists from Nadia district of West Bengal have come up with a novel idea to decorate Durga idols using clothes, jewellery etc made from mud. This would be done without comprising with the aesthetics. Their eco-friendly product for the forthcoming Durga puja is finding many takers.

According to one of the artists Joy Mukherji, the idols adorned with clothes and other decorative items made from mud take more time to prepare as compared to conventional ones and hence are slightly costly.

“We use only eco-friendly material in making these idols, which include water colour instead of synthetic colour, straw, bamboo and mud. Each detail of the mud idol has to match the entire composition, which takes more time than idols on which cloth and jewellery is used for decoration. The Puja Committees here in Allahabad are finding it a novel idea for addressing the issue of river pollution,” he said.

These artists arrived nearly four months back in Allahabad and started making idols since then in Tagore Town area. A 5-feet high eco-friendly idol would cost around Rs 15,000 while an 8-feet high idol would cost around Rs 32,000. The traditional ones on the other hand cost Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 respectively.

It may be mentioned that synthetic paint, clothes and other items used for decorating Durga idols are a major cause of river pollution despite a number of efforts in the light of Allahabad High Court order that have paved way for immersions being held in artificially built ponds under the supervision of district administration.