Ganesh Chaturthi is just around the corner, and just like every year, devotees wait with bated breath to welcome their beloved lord to their homes, picking and choosing which idol looks best.But there is also a flipside to this: right before Chaturthi, every year, the same pictures flash across the news, showing idols piling up on riverbanks, water turning cloudy after immersion, and civic bodies asking everyone to “go green” one more time.Ganesh Chaturthi 2026 falls on Monday, 14 September, and the festival runs for ten days before the final immersion, Anant Chaturdashi, on 25 September.Recently, an influencer came up with an eco-friendly and pocket-friendly idea to welcome Bappa at home by simply preparing the idol yourself, using some simple kitchen ingredients.It does not require using any plaster of Paris, chemicals, or paints, but just Haldi, Maida, and sugar.Let’s dig in to find out how.
Make your own Lord Ganesha idol using Haldi, Maida and sugar
The festive season is just around the corner and while everyone is looking forward to eagerly choosing the most beautiful and appropriate Bappa idol for their home, an influencer with the Instagram handle @creative_doc_adyasha, chose to take a different path by creating the lord’s idol on her own and that too by using eco friendly ingredients that one would easily find in their kitchen.She posted the video with the caption, “Last year I had Made Ganpati idol using haldi, maida & sugar simple kitchen ingredients turned into something so special. Sharing well in advance this year so that u can try making one too ”.She further added, “No fancy materials, just a little patience and lots of love A beautiful DIY idea to try this Ganesh Chaturthi Save this for later & share it with someone who would love to make their own Bappa Ganpati Bappa Morya “
How to make a Lord Ganesha idol for yourself?
The video showed her preparing the idol dough by kneading dough using haldi, maida, powdered sugar, and water. Once the dough was ready, she used designated spoons, scoops, and forks of designated sizes and shapes to give structure to Bappa’s body parts.For the legs, hand, and trunk, she used a soup spoon; for the stomach, she used a circular serving spoon, and so on, filling each of them with enough dough, pressing the material in each scoop till it took the right shape.After this, she then arranged all the body parts on top of one another till the entire idol came alive. After this, she drew the eyes and added the final touches; the yellow coloured idol looked more beautiful than ever, and that too made with just simple eco-friendly ingredients.
How to perform the visarjan of the idol?
Since this idol is made entirely of food-safe ingredients, you can do the visarjan right at home d, by dissolving it in a bucket or tub of water, so no trip to the river or lake is needed. Once it dissolves, the water can simply be used to water your plants.
What happens to idols made out of Plaster of Paris?
Most Ganesh idols sold in the market are made of Plaster of Paris, which doesn’t dissolve easily in water. These idols are often finished with chemical paints containing heavy metals and take a long time to break down once immersed, which ends up polluting rivers, lakes, and the sea and harming aquatic life over time. Multiply that by the number of idols immersed across the country every single year, and the damage piles up.
