Horse idol with ‘green’ garlands a big hit among devotees

PUDUKKOTTAI: For the first time, the iconic 31-foot horse idol of the Perungaraiyadi Meenda Ayyanar Temple in Pudukkottai was adorned with thousands of paper garlands on its annual festival, on Sunday. Lakhs of devotees thronged the temple. With a view of celebrating the festival in an eco-friendly manner, organisers banned the usage of plastic and allowed only garlands made of papers to be adorned on the mammoth statue this year.

“For the past two years, we have been trying to observe plastic-free festival. Though it failed every year, we made it this year. More than 2,000 garlands have already been garlanded on the statue by Sunday evening,” said festival president Ranjith Kumar.

With the festival set to run up till Monday night, organisers hope a footfall of atleast one lakh more devotees. “As many as two lakh devotees have visited till now. As it is a local holiday, we expect more crowd. We are making efforts to provide all kinds of facilities to the devotees,” said an organiser.

Several facilities, including free lunch, modern washrooms, drinking water tanks, and parking facility have been created. Kannan, a devotee said, “Bringing changes like these will pave a way to save  our environment.”