News in Frames: Ganesha idol-making and the eco-friendly material debate
A photo feature from The Hindu documents Ganesha idol-making in Hyderabad’s Dhoolpet while highlighting continued use of Plaster of Paris (PoP) despite Telangana High Court directions to shift toward eco-friendly materials.
GS3GS2GS1The HinduGS3eco-friendly idolsPlaster of Paris (PoP) vs natural materialsTelangana High Court directions
What happened: Hyderabad’s idol-making workflows and the PoP vs eco-friendly clay debate
A photo feature from The Hindu records stages of preparing and painting Ganesha idols for the festival season, including paint preparation, manual finishing, final detailing, and packing finished clay figures for dispatch. The feature describes an idol-making unit in Hyderabad’s Dhoolpet, where artisans carry out these steps to deliver idols for sale.
The captions highlight two material approaches used by artisans:
1) Natural-dye / eco-friendly clay preparations and natural-dye painting for Ganesha idols.
2) Plaster of Paris (PoP) idols, including PoP Maha Ganapati idols.
The captions state that, despite repeated Telangana High Court directives to shift away from PoP towards eco-friendly clay, some artisans continued producing PoP Maha Ganapati idols. The captions attribute continued PoP production to strong market demand.
