Pune: Ten days Ganesh Utsav is celebrated with lots of devotion and enthusiasm by the people all over the country. Variety of Ganapati statue could be seen in different pandal. This time around, a cow shelter run by ISKCON has come up with Ganesh idols made of cow dung and urine.
The Go-Dham Go-shala is situated in the IT hub of Hinjewadi Adlegaon in Maval. It shelters 100 cows, which are not used in the dairy business but to gather dung and urine.
A Go-shala volunteer, Nitin Ghotkule, said that the venture was started in 2011. “People always see a cow as a means of making profit through milk. However, the cows that are sheltered here are not milked,” he said.
For the last five years, the shelter has been making these idols out of dung and urine, mixing them with curd, ghee and sadu mud. The idols can range between five inches to five feet in height.
The idols are coloured using natural dyes from jamun, turmeric and saffron. “For a few months, we failed at our attempts, but we finally got it right. We now employ local residents, especially women; we have trained them and they earn about Rs 5,000 during the festive season,” said Ghotkule.
The idols are sold across Maharashtra, and also Bengaluru, and cost from Rs 200 to Rs 1,000.
