SAWANTWADI, SEPT 10
Can one get more eco-friendly than this? Pramod Vitthal Palav from Kankavli in Sindhudurg district has designed a Ganesh idol made from clay, fig tree juice, paper and glue, which dissolves in water in less than 15 minutes.
For the past three years, Palav has been experimenting with different formulae to come up with eco-friendly idols. In August, in a special session organised by the Maharashtra Pollution Control Board (MPCB) for the benefit of Mumbai’s famous Ganesh mandals, Palav demonstrated his latest innovation. It has been certified by the Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI).
Palav’s idols have attracted thousands of orders for the upcoming festival. “I have sent five idols to the US and recently received a phone call from Australia asking me for two. They wanted a small version of Lalbaug’s prestigious Ganesh idol, but I am so pre-occupied with earlier orders that I don’t have the time,” said Palav.
In fact, Palav could not accept all the orders for his eco-friendly idol, and says that next year he will start work six months before the festival. “I was understaffed and never expected such a huge response. I made around 3,000 idols, which were sent to Mumbai, Pune and Goa. It felt really good when my experiment was appreciated by people,” he said.
