7 ways to celebrate an Eco-Friendly Holi!
Holi festival is one of the most awaited ones in India; One that is celebrated with much enthusiasm and grandeur. Lot of big stars from the Bollywood industry play hosts during this festival and their parties get a lot of attention and media coverage only adding to the glamour of the festival.
Holi also sees the enthusiasm in children peak as they eagerly wait for the festival to throw water balloons on each other or spray water or colour their friends with gulal.
But the modern Holi which is played with plastic balloons or colours that might have harmful chemicals is causing great damage to the environment. The plastic balloons tend to clog drainage systems that might lead to flooding when there is excessive rain. Children might swallow the Holi colours which have harmful chemicals or the colours might leak into our drinking water sources releasing the chemicals into them.
However, there are ways we can celebrate Holi without the causing any damage to our health as well as the environment.
Below are 7 ways we can celebrate an Eco-Friendly Holi.
1. Make your own colours: Colours bought from the market come in plastic bags and often contain harmful chemicals. You can create your own colours at home instead with a little effort. Here is how you can do that,- Red Colour: Get hold of any flower that is red in colour such as hibiscus flowers. Grind the flowers and then simply mix the grounded powder with some flour.
- Orange Colour: Soak Tesu flowers overnight in water or boil them. Once you get the orange colour, mix it with some flour.
- Green Colour: Mix equal quantities of Henna powder and flour.
- Pink Colour: Mix grinded beetroot with flour.
- You can innovate and try making your own colour mixes. Do let us know in comments if you have any other interesting ways of creating colours.
- Puran Poli
- Dahi Bhalle (Dahi Vada)
- Gujiya
- Malpua
- Rasmalai
- Badam Phirni
- Coconut milk murukku
- Pakora
7. Clean-up post Holi: Make sure that there is no litter that is left behind post Holi celebrations. Post Holi clean-up drive can also be a good way of teaching young children about caring for the environment.
If you have any other ways of celebrating an Eco-Friendly Holi, do let us know in comments.
