'Green' Durga Puja evolved, challenge to transform awareness into practices: Environmentalists

Kolkata, Sep 30 (PTI) 'Green themes' in community Durga Puja in West Bengal have evolved from exhibiting climate change and global warming to biodiversity, wildlife protection and energy conservation, but the challenge remains to transform these five-day affairs to eco-friendly practices throughout the year, environmentalists said.

For puja organisers, green themes are like killing two birds with one stone, as such ideas become a hit with puja revellers as people relate their concerns about environmental degradation with these themes, and also help bring recognition to the clubs, they said.

Professor Aniruddha Mukhopadhyay of Calcutta University's Environment Sciences Department said, ''About 15 years back, environment-based themes in community pujas were hardly noticed. But, the number of green themes has been rapidly increasing in the last few years, and it has become a vehicle in driving environmental consciousness among school children and college goers." Mukhopadhyay, who has been following the trend of the environment-based themes since 2007 as a jury member in one of the awards for pujas, said that themes are now not restricted to showcasing the effects of global warming, climate change and pollution.

"Topics such as biodiversity, energy conservation, new and renewable power, conservation of forests, importance of medicinal plants, wildlife protection, marine ecosystem, recycling of waste, reclaiming of wetlands and the concept of circular economy (markets incentivising reuse of products) are making their way into the community pujas," he told PTI.

This year, topics such as agriculture, crop diversity, and organic and sustainable farming emerged as part of green themes in Durga Puja, which were absent in previous occasions, he said.

The adoption of the green Durga Puja concepts has helped create awareness about using eco-friendly paints, not only among idol-makers but also among consumers, biochemist Krishnajyoti Goswami said.

He also said rivers and other waterbodies get contaminated with heavy metals like lead when idols, painted with colours containing these harmful substances, are immersed.

"The greater use of lead-free colour in the making of idols can reduce such pollution. Salt Lake's FD Block Durga Puja was the first in Kolkata and its adjoining areas to use lead-free colour for idols in 2007. Last year, the number rose to 1,208 in the city and its periphery, while the count was around 3,000 across West Bengal," Goswami, who is associated with the National Referral Centre for Lead Poisoning Prevention in India, told PTI.

Sujata Basu, a senior official of non-profit entity Environment Governed Integrated Organisation, said they, in collaboration with West Bengal government departments, state pollution control board, academic institutions and corporate houses, have been acknowledging the environmental performance of community pujas in Kolkata and its surroundings for the last 18 years.

''We started an award, 'Serader Sera Nirmal Puja Puraskar', way back in 2007 as a vehicle to promote environmental awareness. Now, one in every four Durga Puja committees exhibits directly or indirectly environment-related themes.

"We receive around 300 applications every year, of which 75-80 are primarily shortlisted, and around 12 community puja are considered for awards after thorough scrutiny,'' Basu told PTI.

Not only themes, whether eco-friendly materials are being used for pandals or a club has any green campaign programme or safety issues and waste management are also considered in judging a puja committee's performance in green yardsticks, she said.

The length and breadth of environment-based themes have expanded manifold, and authorities of several other puja awards also included green component in their judgment process, the environmentalist said.

Mukhopadhyay, however, urged the puja organisers to transform the five-day extravaganza of green measures into action-oriented neighbourhood programmes to extend the boundaries beyond the puja premises.

"Exhibiting green themes during festive days and eco-friendly activities within the puja premises are important, but crucial will be how puja organisers are transforming the five-day affair into actions for 365 days and make their localities into 'sabuj para' (green neighbourhood)," he told PTI.

Echoing the professor, Forum for Durgatsab chairman Partho Ghosh said only exhibiting green themes is not enough; environment-friendly practices are important.

"This year, we have engaged volunteers to collect plastics at our Shibmandir Durga Puja premises for recycling. This is an action-based effort undertaken so that spectators can be made aware of the menace of plastic littering," he said.

Basu also said that despite the successes, the challenge remains to transform a mere award into green activism.

Goswami said that mass-scale adoption of non-toxic paint is still falling short of expectations in the absence of any checks and balances and also due to a lack of understanding of cost-benefit analysis.

Unit price of lead-free colour is dearer compared to traditional dust colour, but consumption of eco-friendly paint is much less than that of dust variety, he said.

Goswami, who has been associated with the lead-free paint campaign and is a professor at the Department of Medicine at Lincoln University College in Malaysia, said, "Idol-makers are claiming that they are using non-toxic paint. But who is monitoring it? Mass-scale adoption of eco-friendly colour is the need of the hour across the country." PTI BDC ACD