An eco friendly Ganesha, made of clay. The seeds are placed inside Ganesha and when the visarjan is done in a pot, the clay dissolves in a couple of days and the seeds sprout and turn into a plant.

Last year I had seen a video of a man in Maharashtra making these ‘Tree Ganeshas’. He used ‘Shadu clay’ and used a mold to make the idol. He placed the seeds inside the idol. The idea was to do visarjan in a small pot instead of in the river,so as not to pollute them further. And once the visarjan was done the dissolved clay actually turned into a plant, because of the seeds placed inside. So not only were we not polluting the rivers but were actually making the planet greener by planting a tree! What a fantastic idea!

The video also talked about how there was such a demand for these ‘Tree Ganeshas’ and how he could not keep up with the demand. I immediately decided that I was going to try and make it this year. I liked the Crayola Air Dry Clay as it was reasonably cheap, easily available in most stores, dried in a day and came in Terracotta color. For the seeds, I chose easy to grow Cilantro/coriander. I really wanted to use Tulsi seeds, but I knew It was not a good option as it could not survive the cold weather here.

I used the same steps that I had used to make my Wholewheat Ganesha, which was my first post ever! Since its Ganeshji we are talking of, no post is complete without a few laddoo recipes. Here is a Collection of easy and quick laddoo recipes which includes- Badaam ke laddoo made from Almond flour, Besan ke laddoo ,Two ingredient Coconut laddoo and Chocolate,dates and nuts Laddoo. If you want some more easy Indian dessert recipes, do check out this Collection of 12 easy Indian Desserts ready in under 10 minutes.

Here is the written recipe followed by the step by step pictorial one-

Tree Ganesha-Eco Friendly and Bio degradable

Aanchal Gupta

An eco friendly Ganesha, made of clay. The seeds are placed inside the idol and when the visarjan is done in a pot, the clay dissolves in a couple of days and the seeds sprout and turn into a plant.

Print Recipe

Prep Time 30

Total Time 30

Servings Ganesha

Ingredients

1 tub Crayola Air Dry Clay 2.5 lbs/1.13 kg,Terracotta color
2 tsp/2 gms/1 packet of Cilantro/coriander seeds container variety
2 tsp soil
1/2 tsp fertilizer optional
few tsp water for wetting and binding soil
white paint and paint brush
Rolling pin cups,spoon and parchment/wax paper

Instructions

Spread parchment/wax paper to protect the working surface.
In a glass mix soil,fertilizer and seeds.
Add some water to moisten soil so it comes together. Set aside.
Follow the pictorial representation below to give form and attributes to Ganesha.
When dry,paint the tusks and bindi with white paint(optional)

Notes

I chose the Terra cotta color of clay as I wanted a natural look. If you want to paint over the idol, choose white clay. I chose corainder/cilantro seeds, you can choose any seed that will sprout based on your location and climate.

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Here is the step by step pictorial method-

Ingredients-Clay,soil and fertilizer in a cup and any variety of seeds