I was very excited to hear in the news few days back that the durga puja celebrations this year will turn eco-friendly with clay and chalk idols with vegetable dyes on them so that they dissolve easily. There were also claims of pandals turning to solar and LED lighting. Some went over the top giving such eqipment for free (link)
But how much was actually done towards this is a pretty dismal story. Hordes of materials, flowers, frames, decorations and hundreds of idols were immersed in the Yamuna and Hindon rivers and their remnants lay scattered all around littering the whole area and bringing down the entire mood of the festivities..atleast for me.
I don't buy the practices in our religion where we pray and destroy our sacred things at the same time. Our rivers are sacred to us, then why do I have to see people especially stopping on the sides of bridges upon rivers and throwing their so called 'puja stuff' down the rivers. They don't realise that this very muck will come and haunt them in the coming years in the form of choked drains and rivers. They can take the pains of packing, transporting and stopping especially to throw their waste, but they can't walk down the street and throw the same in the municipal bins. Maybe by throwing in bins, they won't get the supposed benefits of their 'particular tradition'.
At major places I have seen the authorities put sites to throw the waste near rivers but haven't seen any use of that..maybe the authorities ought to mention an additional message something like-
'For your religious waste ONLY, try this fast-track way to get directly to the Gods-
Undersigned- All religious heads'
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