Why must a community Puja go green? Because worshipping the goddess is incomplete without paying homage to mother nature.

One of Jamshedpur's most popular and posh community Durga Pujas, the Northern Town CH Area Durga Puja Committee has found out a simple way to recycle wastes generated in the four festive days from Mahasaptami to Dashami.

The Puja committee members, most of whom are senior Tata Steel executives, have decided to dig a pit behind the pandal to dump all organic Puja paraphernalia for the natural biodegrading process to take over.

This is for the first time that one of the steel city's most popular Puja committees has initiated such a step.

Till Dashami, all organic leftovers of the Puja will be dumped there.

The pit will be dug either on Sashthi night or Saptami morning, committee members have said.

'There is a lot of stress on environment conservation, but often people don't know what to do. We decided on a pit, which is both simple and effective, something that will create an impact in real terms. If we dump organic wastes in the pit, it will reduce river pollution during immersion, even if in a small way,' said Amitava Mohanty, general secretary, Northern Town CH Area Durga Puja Committee. 'Also, natural biodegrading in soil itself means we can avoid litter on the grounds,' he said.

He added that everyday Puja paraphernalia such as flowers, leaves and similar materials that can degrade all by themselves over a period of time would be put in the pit that would be plugged after Dashami.

'This idea of a pit was unanimously agreed upon. We wanted to do something positive for our ecosystem and we started this way. We hope we can create eco-friendly examples for other Puja committees to follow. A pit is a low-cost, simple and yet smart idea to recycle organic waste,' said one of the committee members, social worker Alokananda Bakshi.

CH Area Puja is also one of the more spacious Pujas of the steel city with a hangar-type pandal.

Jostling is far less. And not only can visitors move about more freely, as the whole structure is made up of steel and iron angles, there is minimum scope of damage or stampede in case of fire.

This year, the CH Area Puja committee has changed its age-old daaker saaj idols to a more colourful attire, but its traditional cultural programmes, including musical performances and theatre would remain.

Should other Puja pandals have a pit for organic wastes? Tell ttkhand@abpmail.com

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