Puja flowers to give Holi colour (Time of India 09 October 2011)

Ambika Pandit, TNN Oct 9, 2011, 04.33AM IST
Tags: i) floral tributes ii) Durga puja
NEW DELHI: Floral tributes paid to goddess Durga on Vijaya Dashami are benefitting the under-privileged in the city. Volunteers of different NGOs have salvaged nearly six tonnes of flowers from the banks of the Yamuna after the visarjan (idol immersion) held on Thursday to mark the end of Durga Puja.
Eco-friendly colours will be made from these flowers and sold during Holi, thereby serving as a means of livelihood for hundreds of differently-abled people.
Dr Madhumita Puri, who leads a project called 'From Trash to Cash' and coordinated the flower collection exercise at the enclosures set up along the river banks, said: "The flowers have been collected under the banner of 'Avacayam', a project by virtue of which volunteers collect waste flowers. About six tonnes flowers were collected from Kalindi Kunj, Qudsia Ghat, Geeta Ghat and Jagatpur."
She added: "The response was better than last year when we managed to collect flowers from only one ghat. But this is smaller than what I was hoping to collect: about 12 tonnes. To build awareness among people a wider and more focused campaign is required.
"People need to be informed and requested to put aside puja offerings like flowers before the immersion of the idol so that they can be recycled for a cause.
"From next time, the campaign for an eco-friendly visarjan must be organized much before the puja celebrations begin. Building awareness during the festivities when everyone is too busy with the celebrations does not have that big an impact," she said.
The state environment department has proposed to issue an advisory to all puja organizers next year.
This, they hope, will generate awareness among puja organizers to make idol immersion more eco-friendly. The advisory will talk about prevention of river pollution and how puja offerings like flowers can be recycled and put to better use.
"Our volunteers collect nearly 500 kg of flowers every day from temples. In this, they are aided by 20 other NGOs, who collect at least 100 kg of flowers every day. The flowers are then cleaned, cut, dried and converted into natural colours by differently-abled people," said Puri, who coordinates the Avacayam project round the year.