Hyderabad set to hit 'Ganesh' crunch hurdle

Hyderabad: Preparations are in full swing in Hyderabad ahead of the Ganesh Chaturthi festivities. Different types of idols of Lord Ganesha are being sold in various markets in the city including Dhoolpet.

But this time, the big idols have disappeared from the markets. The artisans said that there will be a shortage of idols this season due to less production.

Last year, the idol makers could do very little business due to Covid-19 restrictions, and this year again, in fear of low sales, they prepared less idols.

Ganesh Chaturthi, a 11-day festival will be celebrated from September 10 and will conclude on September 21. On the first day of the festival, people bring the idol of Lord Ganesh to their house and worship him.

According to Telangana Ganesh Utsav Samithi Welfare Association vice-president Kailash Singh Hazari, each year in Dhoolpet, which is one of the biggest idol markets in twin cities, used to make and sell between 60,000 and 70,000 idols per season. But this year, artisans have hardly made around 25,000 Ganesh idols, which is comparatively very low.

"Due to lesser number of idols in the market, there will be a shortage of idols during Ganesh festivities. The prices of the idols have drastically gone up due to the price hike in raw materials. This year the cost of a 5-feet idol is around Rs 10,000, which was earlier of Rs 7,000 to Rs 8,000 while that of a 14-ft to 18-ft idol is costing as much as Rs 60,000 to Rs 1 lakh." Even this year, people were confused over the permission for installing pandals in Ganesh festivities observing the pandemic. Whereas, the same for the artist, as they were already in losses and were concerned about making new idols.

Naresh Singh, an artist at Dhoolpet in Mangalhat said, "The past two years were very hard-hitting for idol makers, most of us were purchasing raw materials by taking a loan or mortgaging the jewellery. Around 3,000 idols in the market were of previous year."

Ram Murthy, another artisan, said that most of the makers are making small idols, as these are easy to sell. "Last year, we made idols up to 12-feet. But due to lockdown restrictions, the big idols could not be sold. This year, we do not want to take risk. We are preparing only small idols as we are facing a shortage of money. We can make many small idols from the materials needed to make from one big idol," he added.