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Amid Puja bustle, steps to save city greenery, Hatibagan alters pandal theme to save local park

By Sumit Kumar, Section Durga Puja
Posted on Mon Sep 22, 2008 at 04:41:15 AM EST

Visitors to the Hatibagan Sarbojonin puja pandal would be greeted with green messages and songs that urge them to join the battle against felling trees this Pujas.

With less than two weeks to go for the Pujas, few organisers would have taken time off to launch a `save the tree' campaign in the locality and alter their theme to save a patch of green. But a group of Hatibagan residents have done just that.

As trees continue to be hacked and environment norms ignored in Kolkata, members of the Hatibagan Sarbojonin puja committee have taken it upon themselves to organize a green puja this time. They will make sure that their pandal doesn't have an ounce of nonbiodegradable material. Measures are being taken to ensure that not an inch of grass is damaged by the pandal.

Flagging off the final preparations on Sunday, the committee members distributed saplings to 500 households in the area. "We have urged our neighbours to nurse the trees and we shall plant them at our local park. Our city is fast losing its green cover. We shall fight to save it through our puja," said Abhijit Bose, one of the organizers.

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Members said the puja was no different till 2006 when local promoters and leaders set their eyes on a park -- the only patch of green in the area. "They had planned a community hall there that would have destroyed the park. It has got 40-50 full-grown trees that would invariably have been chopped. We were not ready to let that happen and started a campaign to quash the move. After about a year, we managed to foil the plan. The campaign opened our eyes to the need to preserve greenery and the environment and we promptly decided to make it our theme this year," added Bose.

The Hatibagan pandal will be constructed only with bio-degradable material. There won't be any synthetic material, clothing or decoration on the idol or inside the pandal that are not permitted under environment regulations. "The idols will only have clay and nothing else. Even the clothing on the idols will be just clay. The paint will be biodegradable and things like zari will be strictly avoided," said Pallabi Pramanik, a member.

Leaflets with green messages will be distributed at the pandal. And, members will sing to convey the green message to the revellers. Ore Halla rajar sena has been chosen as the theme song. "It is directed at the heartless choppers who are bent on turning Kolkata into a concrete jungle. We want to let people know that we are going to fight this menace," said Bose. TNN

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