Pune: Punaravartan Campaign Aims To Recycle 50 Tons Of Clay Idols For Ganeshotsav 2024

The PUNARAVARTAN campaign , an initiative of the eCoexist Foundation, and organised by a collective of 16 organisations enters its fifth year in Pune city. This campaign aims to collect and recycle clay – shaadu maati – after the visarjan of clay idols. It encourages devotees to buy natural clay idols (as Plaster Of Paris has been banned), to do home immersion of idols and to collect the clay and return it to the artisans for reuse. 

This campaign has had a tremendous response for the past few years and over 20000 kg of clay have been collected and returned for free each year. This year the campaign aims to collect 50 tons of clay and for this, it has prepared 60 collection centers across Pune , hosted by the Poornam Ecovision Foundation. Volunteers will stand at these centers to receive the clay on Sunday 15th Sept and Sunday 22n Sept between 10 am to 1 pm. 

The Pune Municipal Corporation has also endorsed the campaign and offered 50 dedicated immersion tank locations to collect the clay sludge from the idols immersed in these tanks. 

For 2024, the campaign is being jointly organised by the eCoexist Foundation, Poornam Ecovision, Swach Coop, Jeevit Nadi, Pune Climate Warriors, The Youth Cosmo, Bavdhan Citizens Forum, Team Swachh Kalyaninagar, Fergusson College, Modern College, Cummins Foundation, Emcure Foundation, Trusteeship Foundation, Parimal and Pramod Chaudhari Foundation, Radio Big FM, Mission City Chakra and Paryavaran Gatividhi. It is being supported by the Bhau Rangari Trust and has also received the blessings of the Manache Ganpati temples led by the Kasba Peth Temple. 

Punes success of this campaign was presented to the Chief Minister Sri Eknath Shinde and DY Chief Minister Sri Ajit Pawar. 43 Amrut cities across Maharashtra have been instructed by them to replicate the Pune model by implementing the Punaravartan campaign. The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board has endorsed the campaign and the Majhi Vasundhara Abhiyaan has included the recycling of clay and soil after Ganeshutsav as one of their criteria of judgement for this year. 

According to the 2020 Immersion Guidelines issued by the Central Pollution Control Board, Plaster of Paris Ganesh idols are prohibited. As more and more artisans return to the use of natural clay – which is a non renewable resource – it is expected that it will be in short supply. Immersion of this material into natural water bodies also creates sedimentation that harms the ecosystems. Clay can very easily be reused and so it needs to be collected and sent back to the original artisans who work with clay. Last year the Chief Minister had set aside 1.8 crores to hand out free clay to artisans – the Punaravartan campaign can save this entire budget by setting up a systematic reverse supply chain. 

Eight cities across Maharashtra have already launched Punaravartan including Pune, PCMC, Thane, Sangli, Aurangabad, Sawantwadi, Mahad and Panvel. Mumbai and Navi Mumbai are also considering the activity. This week an online training will be offered for all municipal corporations by the Punaravartan Core team on how this can be initiated in each city. To know more about the campaign pl visit 

HELPLINE FOR PUNARAVARTAN : 9765999500 (managed by Swach Coop)