Preservation, the essential theme of the Devi Durga lore, is this year the driving concept for the annual festivities as organisers of the various pujas adopt green methods for building shamianas and explore techniques for reducing their carbon footprint.
As the friendly neighbourhood puja now concentrates on also being eco-friendly, it has taken on the challenge to keep at bay such harmful forces as plastic materials, synthetic paints and anything that is not biodegradable.
The D-Block Durga Puja in the south Delhi locality of CR Park proudly proclaims that it has “continued with tradition of constructing a completely eco-friendly pandal for the last 18 years”.
Debajyoti Basuroy, one of those volunteering for the organisation committee, says, “We have replaced plastic decorations with recycled mesh paper decorations. We consciously try to avoid thermocol and metal and instead use biodegradable materials such as hay, clay pots, jute, etc.”
Another volunteer, Anshuman Sengupta, points to the initiative the D-Block Puja is taking to save paper.
“We have converted 80 % of all our creatives, print advertisements, commercials and publicity prints to digital media by using LED/LCD screens. This way, we have reduced our carbon footprint considerably,” he says.
“These initiatives are in keeping with the spirit of Durga Puja. The festival symbolises the triumph of good over evil and we are here trying to respect the goodness of nature and be environmentally responsible,” adds Sengupta.
Puja pandals are offering free wifi to the visitors by making it a wifi-zone.
In east Delhi, Vasundhra Enclave Durga Puja which completes 25 years this year has installed free wifi zone for the visitors along with special focus to eco-friendly idols and pandals.
A much-talked about step towards sparing water bodies the tide of inevitable pollutants that accompany an immersion was CR Park’s B Block construction of a tank on the Puja ground itself for the ritual of ‘Bisharjan’,or bidding adieu to the Goddess for another year.