Picnic @ Kerwa

Bhopal has been lucky this time; it had ‘bounty full’ of rains. Today was another pleasant day at Bhopal. It was combination of weather, cool breeze, over shadowing clouds, intermittent light rains - a perfect day to soothe ones senses. Kerwa was perfect destination to be around. It is around 8 kms from Nehru Nagar, on the outskirts of Bhopal.  Drive to kerwa was smooth, crossing over few trucks carrying Ganpathi idols, with drum beats, loud music, with popular songs, and roars of slogan which added to the flavor.

Young boys laded with red ‘gulal’ and in their own ‘masti’. One could see a big group of over 100 young schools boys returning from kerwas in long line probably after day’s trek. The drive from the start of Kerwa dam to eco-tourism spot was like going in jungle, though it had narrow drivable, but is curvy. On both sides of the road it had trees, and shrubs. Lantana plants dominated the road side, with butterflies hovering around the little flowers.

The road about kilometer and half to eco-tourism spot has number of blind turns, which needs care while driving especially when you have few vehicles going up and down. One could not drive in the eco-tourism spot as the gates were closed. ‘Gush of flow of water’ was had submerged the bridge at the gate. Though few youngsters tried to cross the submerged bridge as water was till knees height, few returned back as surface was slippery surface and gush was powerful, and this could be risky. One could see many earthworms on the surfaces at the gate crawling in the wet mud.

Best option today was to be at Kerwa bridge road or visit at MP tourism ‘picnic @kerwa’. For entering into picnic@kerwa one has to pay a ticket of Rs 5 per person, which is not expensive especially as it includes parking fee for your vehicle. It gives you awesome view of the Kerwa and hillocks around it. It has nice eating joint, and benches to relax if you don’t want to eat at the joint.  The hut with stairs at picnic@kerwa gave a nice look of the water filled kerwa and its opened small gates, with water gushing out and on other side hillock covered with green trees.

Clouds, cool breeze, water filled bodies soothes one senses, roars of slogans, drum beats as one immerses Ganpathi in lakes added  to the flavor, with only pain being for water filled lakes, as they get chemicals and non-recyclable materials in them.

- Anil Gulati

Eco friendly Ganpathis at Bhopal

Ganesh Chaturthi is here. Bhopal celebrates with all its colours. One can find Ganpathi idols for sale in all markets and on street corners of Bhopal. Today onwards one will see hundreds of pandals across the city.  Majority of Idols on sale are Plaster of paris based with chemical colours but thanks to growing awareness on environment, ecofriendly ones are also on sale.

Eco Friendly idols are the ones made of natural mud and should have environment friendly water soluble colours, so that they do not do harm to the water body when they are immersed. NGO Kala Vihan Art and Welfare Society is selling them at Bittan market of Bhopal. On sale are many variants. Smaller ones are made up of mud and attached to the real coconut or just mud and water soluble colours. To make the popular and provide them in numbers an NGO had trained idol makers in this. For bigger idols they have to added paper to give strength and made them attractive. But majorly it is clay, water soluble coloyrs and all will dissolve in water, shares Preeti Bawa of Kala Vihan. ‘They are 20 % expensive but will not harm eco system. Smaller ones you can immerse it in smaller ponds or tub Bawa adds.

Similarly another NGO Narmada Samagara is selling idols made of mud. They are also made up of mud and water soluble colours and are priced at Rs 51.00 and Rs 101.00 respectively. Hopefully this awareness on eco-friendly Ganpathi’s will grow…and help save Bhopal’s water bodies.