Ganesh Chaturthi is a festival celebrated with much aplomb across the country. This year people are largely celebrating from home due to the ongoing pandemic. We have seen a number of eco-friendly Ganesh idols this year, made with biodegradable materials such as paper and herbs too. One such unique Ganesh idols that caught our attention has been made with dry fruits! Dr. Aditi Mittal from Surat, Gujarat has created this wonderful idol for the festival's celebrations which would be kept at a Covid hospital in Surat. Take a look at the pictures:
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Dr. Aditi Mittal wrote sharing the pictures on her Twitter handle, "Made Eco-friendly Ganesha with 511 dry fruits will be kept at covid hospital 'Atal Samvedna' of Surat for 10 days." She also explained that the dry fruits would be later distributed as Prasada in the hospital, which would also help patients build immunity.
Another bakery in Ludhiana has made a similar eco-friendly and edible Lord Ganesha idols with Belgian chocolate. The idea behind making the idols is that they can be immersed in milk for Visarjan and then turned into chocolate milkshake for the devotees. This would encourage people to stay indoors and celebrate rather than venture out for the Ganesh Chaturthi celebrations. Manik Bajaj from the bakery store told ANI, "These idols have been made with Belgian chocolate and weigh around three kilograms and cost between Rs 3,000 to Rs 7,000 depending on the size."
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The idea is to encourage devotees to celebrate in a safe way while staying at home and avoiding mass congregations and large gatherings. "These eco-friendly idols are important during these testing times. We cannot go to the river for immersion. We are buying these idols and later will distribute the chocolate among the children," said Janvi, a buyer at the bakery. We hope to see more such innovative ideas for celebrating festivals soon!