93.5 RED FM – one of India’s largest and most awarded radio networks, celebrates the festival of Ganesh Chaturthi 2018 with its new activity ‘RED Cha Raja’ – aimed at manifesting an eco-friendly alternative for one of India’s biggest Hindu festivals.
Ganesh Chaturthi is a widely celebrated festival in India, observed as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. However, the appeal of this festival has also invited rapid commercialization which has in turn encouraged a rise in the causes of pollution. This has been a constant concern for the authorities for many years and now bolstering this, RED FM proposes eco-friendly ways of celebrating the festival.
Keeping the environment in mind, RED FM pledges an eco-friendly, king sized Visarjan squad in an artificial BMC pond to help prevent pollution of water. They will also organize a ‘Nukkad Natak’ street play in societies to spread the word about why we should immerse the idol in an artificial tank rather than a natural water body and conserve the environment. In addition, RED FM will also bring the evening Aarti on-air for the people who are stuck in the throes of traffic and cannot make it home in time. The activity will cover Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, and Nashik.
On this auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, Nisha Narayanan COO, RED FM said, “It is wonderful to see how people come together during festivals to celebrate, but we should also make it a point to prevent and reduce the pollution created. At RED FM, we not only want to spread happiness on this festive occasion, but also want to make it environmental-friendly. Through the ‘RED Cha Raja’ initiative, we appeal to citizens to take the pledge of an eco-friendly and happy Ganeshotsav. Bajaate Raho!”
By some estimates, over 200,000 such idols made of PoP are immersed each year at the end of the festival in just Mumbai. Meanwhile, toxic paints on the idol, while making them hugely attractive, worsen the condition of natural water bodies when immersed causing them to become acidic and unusable over time. Adding to all this, the flowers, fruits, incense sticks, polythene bags all offered to the god in veneration and then ritually dumped and remain on the shores, decaying, pose as a massive health hazard for many months after.