Ganesh mandals opt for 'go green' theme this year

Mumbai: ‘Go Green’ is the new theme adopted by a few Ganesh mandals in the city which aims to spread the idea of the importance of trees and motivates people to plant trees. To begin with the theme, Ganesh Galli in Parel has already bought 1,000 tulsi saplings to distribute it among the guests. The campaign doesn’t stop by giving away the saplings, the mandals, in coordination with the Brihanmu-mbai Municipal Co-rporation (BMC), will themselves plant saplings on a land that is decided by the civic body.

The drive was initiated by Amey Ghole, a councilor from Wadala (West). Mr Ghole has roped in all the mandals in the area to adopt the ‘Go Green’ theme.

“Every year the mandals spend too much during Ganesh Chathurthi, so I thought this year, the mandals should contribute towards the environment too as there is too much concretisation in the city due to metro works,” said Mr Ghole.  

As a part of this initiative, each mandal is given 21 saplings which they will have to plant after the festival ends. The councilor has partnered with the civic body and a land selected by the municipal body will be used after the festival to plant more saplings by the mandals.

Around 40 mandals have been roped in for this initiative, also mandals from Lalbaug is a part of this initiative. “We will give away the saplings to the important guests who come to visit our mandal. After the festival, we will coordinate with BMC and plant some saplings in an open space decided by the civic body,” said Swapil Parab, president of Lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal (Ganesh Galli). Other mandals that will participate in this initiative include Lalbaugcha Raja and Chinchpoklicha Chintamani.

Furthermore, Ghule explained that songs emphasizing the importance of environment will be distributed to all the mandals, so that the initiative reaches more people.