India’s 92.7 BIG FM is celebrating Ganehsa Chaturthi  – the annual festival dedicated to the Hindu deity Ganesha, with its ‘Green Ganesha’ campaign.

The 10 day commemoration sees millions of plaster-of-Paris models of Lord Ganesha, the Hindu God, go on sale around the country.

But the environmental impact of destroying so many models after the festival is huge.

Instead, a growing trend is to use papier-mache models of Lord Ganesha out of old newspapers.

Green Ganesha campaign was started in 2008 with the vision for a better eco-friendly future and has received tremendous support over the past seven years from citizens across the country.

It spans across 15 major cities this year including Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Goa, Sholapur, Indore, Bhopal, Gwalior, Surat, Baroda, Mysore, Tirupati, Vizag, Chennai & Mangalore.

BIG FM has started the process of collecting tons of newspapers and other paper products from residential areas, celebrity houses, corporate offices, shops and other commercial establishments.

These will be shared with renowned sculptors from across the country to create eco-friendly Ganesha idols through of papier-mache and clay molding.

 Station RJs will provide listeners with daily updates on the collections and locations of the 92.7 BIG FM carts that will travel around each city.

Ashwin Padmanabhan, Chief Operating Officer, Reliance Broadcast Network Limited stated: “BIG Green Ganesha is the largest social campaign we have initiated. We are growing from strength to strength each year and we hope to receive as much support from citizens and our partners alike so we can make this initiative bigger and greener each year.”