Karnataka: Christmas celebrations go green in Mangaluru

MANGALURU

: Eco-friendly Christmas tree decorations made from paper mache are gaining in popularity.

Nitin Vas

, founder, Paper Seed, has launched a wide range of decorative pieces including snowman, Santa Claus, decorative bells, and stars prepared from

recycled paper

.

Nitin Vas told TOI, “We had experimented with a few of these decorative items last year. But due to the tension following the December 19 anti-CAA/NRC violence, we could not launch them in a big way. This year, we have increased the collection, though it has been a dull year from a celebration perspective, due to the pandemic. A group of eight women led by

Reena D’Souza

, have been working on this project. All the items are handcrafted using recycled paper. All these years, we have been attempting to do something unique for Independence Day or Ganesha festival. This time we decided to make Christmas more environment friendly. Generally, the plastic decorative items are imported in large quantities from China,” he said.

Nitin is also experimenting with toys and other items from paper pulp, and is attempting to build a paper seed village on 1.5 acres, using sustainable materials.

Spreading the message of conservation

Cybersecurity expert Ananth Prabhu G and his friend Azzfar Razack have decided to celebrate Christmas in a unique way. “We have decided to spread the message of conservation this Christmas. A decorated Christmas tree placed on a tempo will travel across Mangaluru on December 24. On the tree, a variety of seeds of western ghats species, packed in butter paper packets will be placed, and will be distributed among residents of different localities. We will be offering a packet of organic manure on request. We aim to distribute 500 packets of seeds,” Ananth said.

They have requested people to hand over gifts that have been lying unused in their homes so that the same can be distributed to the less privileged, only if the items are in a good condition. Meanwhile, they will continue to distribute blankets to the needy, for the second consecutive year, but this time the focus will be on senior citizens and underprivileged children.