Bhubaneswar, September 7: The Bakul Foundation on Saturday worshipped Lord Ganesh in the form a tree at Biju Patnaik Park (Forest Park) here on the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi.
The Lord Ganesh that was worshipped had nothing that was bad for the environment as his body was a beautiful tree wearing a yellow dhoti and turban with Kulhas (Bamboo basket for winnowing) for ears, tusks of papier mache and a painted coconut as the cutest ever mouse, the vehicle for Lord Ganesh.
Dedi Loku, (Tree Man in the Kui language of the Kandhas), the green superhero joined the volunteers of Bakul Foundation in the celebrations.
Legends say that Dedi Loku is a spirit that enters into the body of young environmental activists and makes them superheros.
He has been supporting the volunteers of Bakul Foundation in their My Tree Campaign. Many well wishers of Bakul Foundation such as Usha Padhee, Principal Secretary, Housing and Urban Development Department, Soumendra Priyadarshi, Director, Intelligence, Odisha Police, Manoj Nair, Chief Conservator of Forests and Salil Kader, Advisor, US Consulate General, Hyderabad, who was visiting Bhubaneswar on work, also came to worship Tree Ganesh.
Sujit Mahapatra, the founder of Bakul Foundation said that, “Lord Ganesh with the elephant head and human body has been a powerful symbol for union of all creation, the animal world and the human world. Hence, the volunteers of Bakul Foundation found it but natural to worship a tree as Shree Ganesh, drawing inspiration from the age-old practice of worshipping trees in India, a practice prevalent even today. Moreover, Odisha is the land of Lord Jagannath, whose idol is formed from a tree.”
Alok Kumar, a Bakul volunteer, said that it was the 15th year of the My Tree Campaign, in which Bakul has been promoting a cultural association with trees since 2009 realizing that it is only when we have a personal relationship with trees and love and worship trees that people will value trees more would lead to more and more people planting, nurturing and protecting trees and forests, which alone could reverse climate change.
Shruti Kanungo, another Bakul volunteer, who had helped design the Tree Ganesh said, “We are happy to see the impact of our initiatives, many of which are being replicated by others. For instance, this year, many from different parts of Odisha have told us how they started worshipping Tree Ganesh inspired by us.”
