ABSTRACT
The Ganesh Chaturthi festival is widely celebrated by Hindus in India. This festival originated in the worship of the soil by agrarian communities using completely natural materials. The city of Pune has been the focus of this festival, because it was here that it became a collective event, rather than doing individual worship at home. However, in recent times, the festival involves the use of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris and chemical paints that are eventually immersed into natural water bodies causing serious water pollution. For more than a decade, environment groups have been campaigning to encourage the replacement of chemical substances with natural and biodegradable materials. This chapter aims to outline the progress of shifts in the celebration through the campaigns. Together, they have addressed the problems of the materials used, the impacts of immersion and the disposal of waste generated by the festival. In 2020, after several years of advocacy and education, the government banned the use of toxic materials in the festival. The success of the campaign illustrates that when an appeal is made to the religious sentiment of the public, with reference to the natural origins of the tradition, a shift towards conservation is possible.
