India is celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi with great fervor and enthusiasm. People have brought home beautifully decorated idols of Lord Ganesha. Devotees prepare a delicious bhog and prasad to please their beloved deity. As grand as his homecoming, Lord Ganesha's visarjan is an equally elaborate affair. People dance, sing prayers and make merry during the procession to bid him farewell while he departs for his home in Mount Kailasha taking away all the adversities from the lives of his devotees.
However, many believe that this could also take a toll on the environment. The decorated clay idols of Ganesha when immersed in sea may intoxicate the water with a heavy dose of chemical-based paint. With rising awareness certain devotees have taken the initiative to give their most beloved festival an eco-friendly spin for the last few years. This year, actor Riteish Deshmukh and his wife Genelia decided to make a Ganpati idol from scratch. The idol Riteish made, is eco-friendly and comes with a planter attached to it. Here's a video of the same.
It is believed that one of the first to come up with this was Mumbai-based-designer and home-baker Rintu Kalyani Rathod who created a chocolate Ganesha two years back. The idol weighing 35 kilograms was completely made of chocolate and it took almost 50 hours to make it. The idol was decorated with edible colours. On the day of the Visarjan, the idol was bathed in 90 litres of milk and the chocolate milk was then distributed among a large number of underprivileged children, who could not afford a luxury treat like this. Before this, Rintu has also experimented eco-friendly Ganesha idols made of sugar. Here's a glimpse of the same.
Here are some home bakers making some beautiful chocolate Ganesha.
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