BICHOLIM: While most people prefer to buy matoli items from the market, an adventurous group from Bicholim takes the effort to venture into the forest to collect fruits, flowers, medicinal plants, tubers and other items needed for the festival, from the lap of Mother Nature.
A group of villagers from Nanoda get together every year to gather matoli items from the nearby forest.
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Matoli is a wooden canopy decorated with a variety of seasonal fruits, vegetables, wildflowers, mango leaves and herbs kept above the idol of Lord Ganesha.
“Rather than going to the market and buying these things, we go to the nearby forest and collect everything we need. We love this tradition which has become a way to pass on knowledge of local flora and fauna, and their uses, from one generation to the next,” Vikram Vazarkar, a local told Herald.
“It is fun to go searching for things in the jungle and when we tie these things to the matoli, it gives us immense satisfaction,” said another villager Vikas Gaonkar.
