Durga Puja artists of Kumartuli anxious over crackdown on thermocol use and looming deadlines

With the cultivation of wooden sponge (shola) dwindling and single use thermocol (polystyrene) being banned, the idol makers of Kumartuli, the potter’s colony in Kolkata, are struggling to search out alternate options to brighten the idols forward of Durga Puja this season. 

As a measure to crackdown on thermocol, Kolkata Police carried out raids on the potter colony, leaving many anxious about assembly deadlines of finishing the Idols with Puja deadlines looming and clients ready. 

“The detailed decorations and ornaments we will make for goddess Durga with this thermocol will not be potential with every other materials. Most different issues are costly and tough to course of. All artists have already invested lakhs in shopping for thermocol, how will we address solely two weeks left for the pujas?” Kamal Paul, a generational artist at Kumartuli who works to make ornaments and decorations for Durga idols informed The Hindu. As Kamal offers some ending touches to one of many crowns he fashions out of thermocol and vibrant plastic items, he asks if thermocol is used for packing massive parcels, then why small artists like them need to bear the burden of the ban. 

Traditionally, these decorations have been made with shola, a wooden sponge selection principally out there in jap India which was used to make delicate ornaments and pandal decorations throughout pujas and weddings. But that is solely present in timber that at the moment are uncommon as a consequence of lack of cultivation and artists who can work with the fragile shola items have additionally dwindled through the years, leaving the once-flourishing craft on the verge of disappearance. 

“They ought to assist us discover alternate options and have a concrete plan earlier than they ban thermocol. We are poor artists, how will we discover alternate options? This must be researched and studied. Forced ban on the eleventh hour is not going to assist,” one other artist mentioned wishing to remain nameless. 

As a stopgap association, the Kumartuli Mrit Shilpi Samiti (Association of potters and artists) have written to the native MLA Sashi Panja to allow them to use thermocol for the decorations this yr till they’ll discover another. They urged that if police raid their premises towards the thermocol ban then they must stay underneath fixed concern and ending the deadlines would develop into unattainable. 

The artists have been going through this disaster since 2022, when West Bengal Pollution Control Board referred to as for a whole ban on utilization of thermocol. Each yr the artists of Kumartuli negotiate with native leaders to proceed their work, however they concern that this can’t be a long-term resolution. 

“I perceive the environmental concern. I’ve learn in regards to the dangerous results of thermocol. But as artists with only a few assets, what different different do we’ve? Metal or material is not going to make applicable or inexpensive replacements,” Bankim Paul, one of the senior potters in Kumartuli mentioned. 

Mr Bankim added that nearly 20-30% of the idol is made with thermocol, and to cease utilizing it in a single day is a big concern for them. For the artists of Kumartuli, they now stand on the crossroads of environmental issues and their cultural livelihood with no alternate options in sight.