City Youth & School Students Get Hands-On Training For Making Eco-Friendly Ganpati Idols At Workshop Organised By FPJ & BMC
Mumbai: Around 50 city youth and school students gathered on Wednesday for a hands-on, eco-friendly Ganesha idol-making workshop ahead of the upcoming Ganeshotsav festivities. The initiative was jointly organized by The Free Press Journal, in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), marking a key preliminary event under the media house’s ongoing green campaign. Workshop…
Around 50 young individuals, including city youths and school students, attended a workshop focused on crafting eco-friendly Ganesha idols on Wednesday. The event was a collaborative effort between The Free Press Journal (FPJ) and the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), serving as a significant kickoff for the media outlet's ongoing green campaign.
This marked the seventh edition of FPJ's 'Eco Ganesha Mayor’s Award' initiative, which recognizes families throughout Mumbai that host the most environmentally-friendly Ganpati idols in their homes, thus fostering a city-wide movement towards more sustainable festivities.
Hosted at the Free Press House, the workshop was led by expert sculptors from the esteemed Sir J.J. School of Architecture, who provided participants with hands-on guidance on creating intricate idols using natural shaalu mati, or clay. The esteemed sculptors present included Prashant Iphte, Vaibhav More, Mayuresh Andhyal, Maheshwari Dhore, Siddharth Gaikwad, and Kiran Kesarkar.
Additionally, representatives from non-governmental organizations such as Ratnanidhi Charitable Trust and Ghaswala Vision Foundation participated in the event.
During the workshop, participants were taught fundamental clay-modeling techniques, from creating the base to crafting the body and adding facial details. The experts emphasized the significance of employing eco-friendly materials, such as natural, water-based pigments instead of synthetic dyes. They demonstrated how clay idols can dissolve harmlessly in bucket water at home, thereby avoiding the pollution of Mumbai’s natural water bodies.
Prominent figures from the entertainment industry, such as actors Vaishnavi Andhale, Siddharth Menon, and Tejas Raut, attended the workshop as guests and expressed their support for the initiative. Andhale remarked, "I am a believer and I celebrate all the festivals but I believe that our celebration should not harm anybody or anything.
We are witnessing the situation of the environment. Everyone is talking about it but the issue is that we just talk and put stories on social media. This is the time when we actually change our actions."
Written by urgent.news from Free Press Journal's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
