Suryakant Shankar Gaonkar from village Bhuipal Sattari has been making organic natural Holi colors at home for the last five years. He has also been trying to pass the message to every Goan to celebrate Holi with natural colors, every year.

Suryakant, got the idea of making natural Holi colors from the renowned Environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar, Vivekananda Environment Awareness Bridge and the Goa Patanjali Association, of which he is a member.

According to Suryakant Shankar Gaonkar, he collects tree leaves, flowers, vegetables and fruits and by mixing them all he makes organic colors. With the help of flowers, he makes saffron color and yellow color from turmeric.

Since last five years, he has been working very hard on these organic natural colors. This year there has been a huge difference in the colours. For the past four years his colours were supposedly getting very light after some time which the people did not like but this year he has managed to make them very dark.

Further, he says that this year there is more demand for organic color and his target of making colors this year is 400kg plus. From the month of December every year, he starts work on making the natural colors. People from all parts of Goa visit his home to buy Holi colors. Seeing all these people visit his home gives him a very different feelings. Without his family support, it would not possible for him, to make this colors. All his family members are helping him in making organic colors.

The difference between the chemical colors and organic colors is that, chemical colors take around four to five days to fade from the skin. It could also lead to skin diseases and cold. If organic colours went into ones mouth it would not be a problem. It can also be easily removed with a dry piece of cloth.