Seed-idols to make Ganesh festival special in Dharwad

Manjunath Hiremath, the artiste who is known for making eco-friendly Ganesh idols has launched a campaign to promote 'seed Ganesh idols' not only to make the Vinayak Chaturthi festival meaningful, but also help people get vegetables for months free of cost.

Conceived and developed by him, the seed Ganesh idols are unique in many ways. He uses clay to prepare the hallow idols. He puts seeds of various vegetables like cucumber, ladies' fingers (ochra), pumpkin, tomato, green gram, soyabean, tulasi, etc, inside the idols before covering them. When they are immersed in water and the same clay with seeds put in the garden, vegetables start growing.

Not only this, he also presents small packs of seeds to the devotees who install his idols at their homes. The same seeds can be thrown in the open space in their compound.

He has already prepared 50 huge idols, to be installed at public places, and 500 small Ganesh idols to be used at homes, and they are ready to be installed. The seeds will start sprouting within 15 days after the idols are immersed in water. The idols prepared by him melt in water within 30 minutes.

"My aim is to make the festival more meaningful and protect the environment. Besides, the devotees who install the idols will get vegetables for months after the idol is immersed. They just put the melted clay and the seeds in a corner of their compound. The seeds will start growing and providing vegetables within two weeks," he said with a smile.

"When most of the festivals are losing their real meaning and spirit due to harmful chemicals and non-eco-friendly material used by people, the campaign launched by Manjunath Hiremath will make the Ganesh Chaturthi celebration really purposeful," said Harshavardhan Sheelavantar, who works with Nature Research Centre.

Such moves would certainly play a crucial role in protecting the environment.