Mumbai: Mumbai’s oldest Durga samiti, the Bombay Durga Bari Samiti, which has been organising Durga puja for the past 88 years, for the first time has kept an eco-friendly idol of goddess Durga. Although this is not the first time that the samiti tried to go green, this time they have made a concerted effort to make every material for the idol eco-friendly.
“In the past, small elements that were used for the idol were eco-friendly but not the whole murti. This year we made a determined effort to make sure everything thing was eco-friendly as we find that there is a growing concern about environmental friendliness,” says President of the samiti Jayanta Basu.
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The idol this year is ‘Eik Chaler Thakur’ (all the Gods are covered by one halo) in a ‘Rajprasad’ theme that is a palace-themed decor. Goddess Durga will be dressed up as a Queen adorned with a heavy brocade Benarasi and jewellery. Lakshmi and Saraswati will be dressed as princesses and Kartik and Ganesh will wear silk pleated dhotis dressed as royal princes. With Mumbai still reeling from noise pollution due to Ganesh Chaturthi and never-ending traffic snarls, Basu says that they have made all arrangements to avoid any disturbance to the public.
“The pandal is in P. L. Deshpande Maharashtra Kala Academy, which is very close to Chowpatty beach, so our route won’t be long and we will not use loud speakers and disturb people. We do have music and we have our own dhak and dhole but no loud speakers,” clarifies Basu.
“We will also leave the academy by 2pm on 30th September and finish the immersion by 5:30pm so as to not affect peak time traffic. Moreover, Mumbai traffic police is very efficient and we follow all the rules so that our rituals don’t not affect the residents or the commuters,” he added. As Bombay Durga Bari samiti is one of the oldest Durga pandals in Mumbai, in the course of the five-day festival, the pandal will be expecting more than 25,000 visitors this year and most of them will visit during ashtami.
