BANGALORE, KARNATAKA, August 30, 2003: Ganesha Chaturthi has been celebrated in grand style in the southern states for many years. It is only in the last few years that the festivities have taken on a new eco-friendly consciousness. Idol makers and devotees are being encouraged to make loving murthis from clay and other natural substances and to paint the icons with vegetable dyes, as they were a hundred years ago. This is in an ongoing effort to stop polluting major lakes and rivers with unnatural and nonbiodegradable substances, such as plastics and lead paint, that contaminate the water and endanger the lives of scores of species that naturally inhabit the bodies of water. The movement to make the Ganesha festivities more environmentally friendly has been driven by the Centre for Appropriate Rural Technologies (CART).
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