Rahul Ray
President, YOU & I Foundation Hooghly,
Chinsurah, Hooghly, West Bengal, India.
Preservation of environment is not an optional matter. In this planet for the sustenance of all species and to keep the planet habitable for our progeny the practice of preservation of environment needs to be developed in each and every sphere of our activities. Today environment is already endangered due to some ecological problems of our civilization that include various pollutions, global warming as well as rapid depletion of natural resources. The concept of eco-friendly festivals is related with this practice of environmental preservation.
Festival is the perpetual source of mirth in man’s social life. During festivals man wants to enjoy ceaselessly regardless of cast, creed and religion. But, in reality, it has been observed that the seeds of pollutions are germinated from such flamboyant social festivals. During social festivals we exert more pressures through our activities that have a serious adverse impact upon nature, viz., too much use of loudspeakers, huge public gathering at a place for a long time, traffic bottleneck, extra consumption of electricity and water, generation of extra wastes and so on. All these lead to serious local ecological crises.
In West Bengal idol worshipping during festivals is prevalent among the Hindu Bengalis. These festivals are inseparable part of their social life. These festivals mean various types of images of gods made with clay, thatch, chemical colors with glittering adornments. During the days of festivals man wants to get rid off his day-to-day drudgery arranging various cultural functions – songs, dramas, dances etc. The use of loudspeakers, very often seen to cross the permissible sound limit, becomes an essential part of these functions.
You & I Foundation Hooghly, an NGO of Chinsurah, has been working since 2004 to remove the remnants of goddess Durga from Ganga river after immediate immersion. This helps prevent water pollution as the idols are often made out of toxic chemical paints and other harmful decorating materials. For this purpose some steps are taken. These are: (1) arrangement of containers in collaboration with the Municipal Authorities to dump the puja offerings (flowers and leaves) at immersion ghats so that the puja organizers may dump these things there; (2) making of organic manures from these dumped flowers and leaves; (3) within 24 hours of idol immersion the remnants of idols, viz., straw/jute strings, structures, decorations and other wastes must be removed from the Ganges to the solid waste dumping sites of local corporation with the help of local authorities and (4) recycling and reuse of collected materials from the Ganges. All these activities help reduce the pollution level of the Ganges water. Not only this activity is being done during Durga puja, but we have been trying our best to clean river Ganges and other water bodies in other pujas, viz. Laxmi puja, Kali puja and Saraswati puja. Apart from these, a mass campaign is made against the wide use of generators during the days of puja in pandals and immersion-procession. Responding to this campaign a good many number of puja organizers started using LED bulbs and 12-volt battery for lighting replacing noise creating and fume emitting generators. This instance certainly inspires other puja organizers to use LED bulbs for decorating and batteries instead of generators. Consequently the total electric consumption at peak hours of puja days came down. This enabled less carbon dioxide emission from generators. This step is quite significant in lowering global warming. The puja organizers also have displayed different posters and banners highlighting the concept of eco-friendly puja. During immersion of idols they assisted immensely to control pollution.
The concept of eco-friendly social festivals is a recent one. For a long time limitless pollutions occur through these social festivals. To curb the level of pollutions during various festivals the Department of Environment, Government of West Bengal, decided to arrange environment-friendly ‘Serader Sera Nirmal Puja Puroskar’ competition among different puja organizers in 2007. The Department of Environment appointed some local voluntary organizations as nodal NGOs for the smooth and effective operation of this process. In 2007, a workshop to promote mass awareness regarding eco-friendly festivals was arranged at government level. The Chief Law Officer, Department of Environment, Govt. of West Bengal, discussed the entire matter with supporting documents and pictures. From the workshop it becomes clear that the puja organizers should identify the causes of local environmental degradation and at the same time must take necessary steps to prevent it through their activities and budget. They should be remained alert in making idols and pandals so that no toxic and inflammable materials are used for this purpose. Here I take the privilege to inform all that our organization has been acting as a nodal NGO since 2007 to organize ‘Serader Sera Nirmal Puja Puroskar’. You & I Foundation Hooghly, in a joint venture with the Department of Environment, maintains a good network with the organizers of the aforesaid pujas from the very pre-puja days to arrange environment-friendly pujas to curb the level of pollutions during festive days and emerges out as one of the trailblazers in environment movement in our state. This year, our organization has been vested with the added responsibility to monitor the restoration work of the puja organizers after puja days by the Department of Environment, Govt. of West Bengal. For best restoration work prizes will be given to the best performers. Here it would be ingratitude if I won’t mention the name of Mr. Biswajit Mukherjee, Chief Law Officer, Department of Environment, Govt. of West Bengal, who ceaselessly inspires us to attain this goal. It certainly would not have been possible for us to stride our desired path without his constant support and guidance. We think he is a mentor to all the NGOs working in the field of environment. Lastly, it needs to be mentioned here that the different verdicts of Hon’ble Kolkata High Court make our effort more matured and convenient.
