Tirupati, September 6, 2013: Equipped with carving tools, Ramu gives finishing touches to the 5-foot tall Ganesh idol as his mother scrutinises it for finer details. Others continue painting the remaining idols, while some haggle with customers.

These are some of the familiar scenes at Bommala Colony, a place frequented by people to purchase Ganesh idols on the outskirts of Tirupati.

“All the idols are eco-friendly as they are made using naturally available items like paper pulp, powdered form of ‘alvarugadda’ (a kind of tuber), maida and chalk,” says Mr. Ramu. “But this time, we might not find takers as many of them purchased idols made of Plaster of Paris,” he says.

The environment-conscious idol makers in the colony never used PoP or other artificial inputs in making the Ganesh idols. But the public indifference to understand the ill-effects of PoP discourages them. Some of them have finally started asking ‘What is the use of being eco-friendly?’

Residents of Bommala Colony have made this their profession from several generations. There are also a few award-winners amongst them.

Even workers from neighbouring States come down to Tirupati every year in January to start making the idols till ‘Vinayaka Chaviti’.

“The maximum height of the idol is 15 feet. Beyond that, it will crumble as the materials used are not strong enough to hold it,” says Karthi, a worker from Tamil Nadu, who has been staying in the quarters provided by his employer.

The idols made here are exported to various districts in Andhra Pradesh except Hyderabad, where the market demands idols of mammoth size, which these natural materials do not support.

“People look for shiny statues with smooth finishing which can only be achieved by PoP. They don’t understand the damage they are causing to the environment by purchasing them,” says Malleswari, another idol maker in the colony.

“Unlike PoP, our idols dissolve easily and become fish feed,” she adds. They even claim a smaller profit margin because of the rise in prices of the raw materials.

The tradition-bound artists also do not run after fancy ideas and stick to conventional setup. They politely send back the customers approaching them with a wild imagination to depict Ganesha in unconventional forms.

Source: The Hindu, September 6, 2013