The Ganesh visarjan or the immersing of Lord Ganesh statues made of plaster of Paris creates lot of environment damage every year. To tackle this environment degradation, car maker Datsun has joined hands with United Way of Mumbai to promote eco friendly Ganesh festival.
This Ganesh Festival, over 2000 college youth will indulge in the revelry in a unique way. They will reach out to thousands of Ganesh Mandals and sensitise them on adopting environment friendly methods of celebrations. The campaign, aptly titled ‘Greenesha’ or ‘Green Ganesha’, is path breaking movement focussed on not only creating an incremental value in terms of awareness on environment friendly ways to celebrate but also translate to on ground work with Nirmalya (Holy waste) collection. On major immersion days these young green volunteers would ensure only Ganesh Idols are immersed in the water bodies and that the Nirmalya is collected separately and treated to produce organic manure.
The environmental impact of this festival is humongous. Every year Mumbaikars witness a frenzy of celebrations that culminate with the customary idol immersion of nearly 3 lakh Ganesh idols ranging from a few inches to several feet. These Ganesh idols are immersed in beaches and lakes. These water bodies get polluted with partially dissolved idols, flowers, and decoration material. Needless to say, the pollution of the water and surroundings is a major health hazard and a civic nightmare for the municipal authorities. ‘Greenesha’ is an awareness drive and action to ensure that there is tangible and long lasting change in our attitude towards the environment without acting as a roadblock to the festive fervour.
Speaking about this environment protection initiative, Kenichiro Yomura, President – Nissan India operations said, “We are delighted to wholeheartedly support Greenesha and participate in this movement to promote an environment friendly Ganesha festival in Mumbai. Sustainability has always been our prime focus and we are glad to reinforce our commitment towards a sustainable society through this Greenesha campaign. At Nissan, we firmly believe that cars, people and the environment coexist. This campaign promoting green Ganesha through Datsun cars is a testimony to that belief, as we are honored to be part of such a sustainable movement of one of the largest festivals in India.”
Nissan has come forward to support the entire cost of the campaign as part of its Corporate Social Responsibility. The local municipal authority and State Pollution Control Board are United Way of Mumbai’s partners in this campaign.
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