Durga Puja pandals in Odisha go green this year, single-use plastic banned

The world seems to be finally mindful as efforts from different quarters to save planet Earth can be seen. Falling on similar lines, the Indian state of Odisha has planned to do something remarkable; this time, a majority of Durga Puja pandals in the state have decided to go green and make this festive season more environment-friendly!
As per reports, this year there will be 170 puja pandals in the state, out of which 115 have decided to ban single-use plastic. Narayan Mohapatra, Bhubaneswar Puja Committee Secretary, has strictly ordered all puja committees to follow this and ban plastic completely.

It drives home the point that people have now realised the importance of being environment-friendly. All the puja pandals in Odisha will see volunteers, who will be working together in making people aware of the harmful effects of plastic on their day-to-day life.
The prasad too wouldn’t be distributed in plastic plates but in plates made out of sal leaves. If a devotee shows up at a pandal with any sort of plastic, the volunteers will dump the same in the eco-friendly dustbins installed outside the pandals.

Not only this, the Durga Puja Committee in Odisha has also asked not to use chemical colours for the idols of many gods or goddess.

After the announcement of plastic ban, it became a challenging task for designers to erect pandals without using plastic even as the committee stuck to its decision of pollution-free Durga Puja. The same motivated designers to come up with innovative ideas. So yes, this year, people can see that the pandals are designed with inedible wild fruits from forests, various biodegradable items such as seashells and conches are used to prepare a replica of the Padmavati Palace in Rajasthan.

One of the renowned pandals here, set up by Jharpada Durga Puja Committee, which is known for its extravagant pandals is all set to make plastic-free Disneyland.