Ganesh Chaturthi 2025: When celebs chose to make their own eco-friendly idols

It's Lord Ganapati's Day today! And with another grand festival, comes the talks around rituals, idols and how idol immersion during Ganesh Chaturthi pollutes the soil and water, besides affecting the marine life.

But celebrations shouldn't be missed out, right? Solution, eco-friendly idols. And celebs, time and again, are setting examples to making their hands dirty for something good.

Times when celebs switched to eco-friendly idols

Popular television stars Rithvikk Dhanjani, Karan Wahi, Raqesh Bapat make it a point to make their own bappa every year from scratch, using just clay. They usually skip any sort of colours, but if absolutely necessary, natural colours like sindoor, turmeric are added.

Previously, even Bollywood celebs like Dia Mirza, Sonu Sood, Rajkummar Rao-Patralekhaa, Ayushmann Khurrana-Tahira Kashyap have taken to homemade, eco-friendly ganeshas to celebrate.

Take a cue from Rithvikk Dhanjani:

In fact, the actor, along with Karan Wahi shared a reel how the friends-colleagues run a workshop every year for people to join in and learn to make bappa with clay and regular acrylic or poster colours just to amp up the sweet gannu idols.

Actor Raqesh Bapat too hosts workshops whee he teaches the little details of making a clay ganesh idol from scratch. And no, this isn't the first time they are doing it.

In fact, if you type eco-friendly ganesh idols on the internet, you will find a lot many options of brands selling ready-made clay idols, and you may get a few options of idol making kits too.

The immersion process is very easy too. Just set up a tub, add clean water and lay your idol on it, giving it time to melt away completely. Drain the water into the nearest garden beds, especially to plats which need alluvial soil, or save it up for later use.

How do market bought idol immersion affects the environment?

Idol immersion can cause significant water pollution. Often made with POPs, harmful chemical paints containing heavy metals like lead and chromium, wash off into water bodies during immersion. This heavy metal then contaminates the water bodies, killing aquatic life, and eventually damaging the ecosystem through bioaccumulation. The decomposition of the idols also contributes to eutrophication, further degrading water quality.

Switching to eco-friendly idols doesn't mean it always has to be made with clay. One can also choose other bio-degradable products like biscuits, mewa, or even made a collage with pulses, just like the way we did during school! And as they say, nothing feels better than making and worshipping your handmade idol.

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