Bhubaneswar: Ganesh Chaturthi was celebrated in a unique manner by combining religion and a social cause as the Lord took the form of a tree inside Biju Patnaik Park in Odisha capital on Wednesday.
Drawing inspiration from the age-old practice of worshipping trees in India, volunteers of Bakul Foundation created the Lord Tree Ganesh using upcycled material and new dhotis for the fifth consecutive year.
Trunk of a mature tree doubled up as the body of Lord Ganesh, traditional winnow trays (kulla) became big ears, thermocol pieces were shaped into tusks and painted sunboard as eyes while the trunk was painted on the tree.
The rains would do a natural ‘visarjan’ of the Lord and there would not be any pollution of water bodies with the immersion of the idols filled with chemicals.
“All the volunteers were pretty excited with this creative idea of giving an environmental message and we put our ideas as to how differently we will create the Tree Ganesh though there were precedents from earlier celebrations at Bakul. We knew the risk of rains, and designed it accordingly,” Shruti Kanungo, a young volunteer of the organisation, which works towards social and environmental causes, said.
According to Alok Kumar, an active volunteer of Bakul for many years, and who led the initiative, “Bakul recently celebrated Raksha Bandhan in which we encouraged people to gift organic seed rakhis that could be planted and also give plantable gifts such as saplings. In our campaign, Bakul has been aggressively promoting a cultural association with trees, which is needed to change the tide of environmental damage and degradation. That is why on Raksha Bandhan, volunteers also tie rakhis to trees and we encourage people to gift plants on festivals such as Diwali, New Year’s Day and Valentine’s Day”.
Sujit Mahapatra, the founder of Bakul, added, “Our environment was fine as long as culturally, we were linked to the environment, and we respected it. The moment we lost this cultural relationship, and trees became mere objects, they were dispensable. That’s why it’s difficult to fell any tree if a temple has come up below as under many Peepal trees.”
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