Who says going eco-friendly is restrictive, sober or boring? Malad's Raipada Mitra Mandal is among those who have gone creative with their idols made keeping the environment in mind — an eight-foot Ganpati made from 5,000 paper cups.
The mandal has been spreading the message of celebrating an eco-friendly Ganeshotsav for the last five years.
Talking about this year's concept, mandal secretary Sandeep Birvatkar said: "After much brainstorming, we finalised on using paper cups in which tea/coffee is drunk. The weight of the idol is hardly 10kg. Natural colours were used to paint the garland and other parts of the idol. It will take 10 minutes for the idol to dissolve in water."
"Social media played an important part to change our mindset. When we watched videos and pictures of PoP idols lying in a bad condition after immersion, we felt bad about it. Looking at the poor condition of waterbodies and the idols after immersion, we decided to go eco-friendly five years back," said mandal president Sanjay Tulsankar.
Last year, the mandal had installed an idol made of bamboo. Their artist every year has been Siddhant Naik.
Speaking about the difficulties faced while making the idol, Naik said: "It was difficult to give the exact shape to it. There are a lot of curves and hollow shapes needed to make the garland and trunk. Other materials, such as wood, iron wire and cloth, had to be used to balance the idol. It took me 15 days to prepare it."
