BANGALORE: The efforts of the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) to convince people to buy eco-friendly unpainted Ganeshas idols, to prevent pollution seems to have gone down in the drain. According to Krishne Gowda, one of the idol vendors who sells Ganesha idols in Mahalakshmi Layout, around 90 per cent of the customers buy painted idols though they are costlier than the unpainted ones. “Though the elders in the family want to buy unpainted idols for ecological reasons they end up buying painted idols to please the children. Most of the people have been worshipping the painted Ganesha idols for many years and it is difficult for them to break the tradition. Therefore, they end up buying painted Ganesha idols in spite of knowing that the lead in the paint pollutes the water bodies when the idols are immersed,” Krishne Gowda said. Hari Prasad Reddy, who sells Ganesha Idols by the side of West of Chord Road, said, “Very few customers ask for unpainted Ganeshas. Therefore, we have stopped selling unpainted idols from this year.”According to K Yatish, who sells unpainted Ganeshas near Sri Rama Mandira, it is very difficult to say if the demand for unpainted idols has increased as many people have a tradition of worshiping unpainted Ganeshas. “We have been selling unpainted Ganeshas even before the pollution control board started recommending the use of unpainted idols. It is very difficult to gauge if there is any change in the buying habits of the people as we don’t get orders in advance and people don’t buy big unpainted idols. We sell only small idols and we can know if the demand for the unpainted idols has increased only by tomorrow evening”, Yatish said.
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