An extended and green Ganesh Chaturthi

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Clay Ganeshas collected at SSM Nagar. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

At SSM Nagar in Alapakkam, New Perungalathur, residents have been having an extended Ganesh Chaturthi for the last three years, making the clay Ganeshas central to a recycling initiative. As in the previous two years, under an in-house initiative, ‘KAATRU’ (Keeping Awareness And Action Towards Recycling and Upcycling), helmed by P.S. Jayaraman, has collected clay Ganeshas and kept them ready for potters.

Residents are asked to choose natural, unpainted clay idols and, after the celebrations, leave them at a designated collection point near the Pillayar Kovil. From there, the idols are handed over to potters.

P.S. Jayaraman, a resident of SSM Nagar, initiated this exercise three years ago inspired by a newspaper article about how Malini Kalyanam, pottery artist and environmentalist. “She was in Teynampet. There was a newspaper article saying that Ganesha idols need not be put into water and cause pollution, and that they could instead be given back to potters,” he says. The article prompted Jayaraman to contact Malini, after which the community arranged for its idols to be collected and sent to potters.

The arrangement changed in the second year, when Jayaraman began looking for potters who could directly collect them from the community. “I looked on Google and contacted four or five potters inside Chennai,” he says. Eventually, a potter near Kovalam connected him with another potter in Mahabalipuram, who agreed to collect the idols and reuse the material. “From the second year onwards, we started sending the idols directly to him. Last time, we sent around 900 to 1,000 Ganeshas,” Jayaraman says.

This year, around 200 to 250 idols had already been collected, with residents expected to continue bringing them in until the afternoon of September 19. Jayaraman has also been urging residents to think about their choices before the festival. The campaign asks them to avoid Plaster of Paris idols, non-eco-friendly paints and decorations. “I have been talking only about clay. I have been telling them not to buy painted Ganeshas or plaster Ganeshas,” he says.

For Malini Kalyanam, who is Director of the Artistic Pottery Training Academy in Kattupakkam and one of the founders of The PALM, a public charitable trust, the issue goes beyond what happens to an idol after the festival. As a pottery artist, she has also watched the availability of natural clay decline. This year, her academy received enquiries from corporates as well as members of the public looking to purchase clay for Chaturthi workshops, only to find it difficult to source.

“This year we had enquiries from corporates and the public alike to purchase clay for Chaturthi workshops, and that is when they said it is not available online or even at shops in the locality. This shows that demand is high but supply is on the lower side,” she says. Malini says the recycling project has been around for nearly a decade, but awareness has picked up considerably in recent years.