Since four years, Murali, a businessman has been installing the tallest eco-friendly Ganesha idol in Kavadiguda, Hyderabad. This year too continuing the tradition he installed a 65ft idol, tallest in the city of Nizams.
The Idol is made of bamboo, grass, clay and silt brought from the Ganges, has become a major attraction for the Ganesh festivities in the city since it was first installed in 2014.
“My motto is to save the water bodies from the ill-effects of PoP idols. It pains me to see Hussain Sagar getting polluted every Ganesh Chaturthi with POP, harmful chemicals and toxic paints after immersion of the idols. I wanted to do something to save the lake and came up with the idea of commissioning an eco-friendly idol,” Murali said, quoted TOI.
Murali thought of adding some sanctity to the idol to discourage its immersion in water bodies around the city, hence started using clay and silt from the pious Ganges to make the idol. “I contacted my friends in West Bengal and got 30 bags with 25kg of clay in each bag transported to Hyderabad by train. Then I got around 11 skilled sculptors from Kolkata to make the Ganesha,” he informs.
To curb the pollution Murali’s seva samithi called “Go Green Ganesha” doesn’t immerse the idol after the 11 day festivities. Instead after the puja, they use water cannons and the Ganesha gets dissolved and the clay is distributed among the people, who are happy to take it home as it’s from the Ganges.
It took Murali and his bunch of sculptors two months to construct the huge idol. “The artistes started work on the idol on June 12.
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