Goemkaprponn desk
PONDA: Goa is fast losing its hills, agriculture and forest for the greed of money, making builders who are after construction of mega project destroying scenic Goa.
The Ganesh Chaturthi 2021 has come with a message to protect the environment.
The houses were filled with forest treasures like matoli items, eco-friendly Ganpati.
Overall, this Ganpati gave a message of protecting the environment.
Compared to normal matoli decorations in every house, the Matoli Decorators taking part in the competition use a full portion of the hall roof to decorate matoli items of the hall where Ganesh idol is installed. Normal Matoli are decorated with 20 to 30 items and availble at Matoli bazaar, but for the special Matoli, an Artist gathers around 300 to 400 items and has to go in various parts of Goa,s forest to gather items.
However, due to the pandemic this year, these special Matoli are not encouraging people to visit their house and avoided their name and publicity due to COVID SOPs.
Several Matoli artists, after a hard effort of several days of moving into the forests of various parts of Goa and gathered matoli items with three to four hundred varieties of fruits available in Goan forest.
Some of these artists in Ponda Taluka participated in State level Matoli Competition organised by Art and Culture Department today; on the third day Art and culture team inspected Matoli, said the artists.
The Non-Goans settled in Goa may celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi without installing Matoli.
Still, the original Goans can’t imagine the celebration of Chovat without a Matoli. A wooden frame attached to the roof above the idol is placed for decorative purposes using fruits and vegetables also having medicinal value.
The participants in the Matoli competition uses the entire hall to display Matoli items.
The Art and Culture Department encourage Matoli artists, even organise state-level competitions.
Around five to six artists who participate every year in this competition are from Ponda.
Besides this, artists from Valpoi, Canscona, Netravali etc. participate in these competitions and, with strenuous effort, decorate huge eco-friendly Matoli, which draws a huge crowd.
Several artists from Ponda taluka and Priol, besides other parts, decorated the matoli in an innovative way exhibiting various images, including of God and renowned personalities.
Senior Matoli Artist at Curti, who won state-level prizes several times, said he and his family, with many members, celebrate the Ganesh Festival under one roof.
He said he has created Matoli using 385 fruits and vegetables this year, including jungle and Bagayat fruits. The decoration is based on protecting the environment and varieties of fruits, natural gifts, he said.
A traditional matoli consists of fruits like chikoo, banana, orange, melon, mango called porus ambe, apple, guava, breadfruit, butter fruit, pomegranate, toringe, maulinge toringe, custard apple, coconut, pineapple, betel nut and many other fruits available in each region of the state.
Vegetables comprise banana flowers, pumpkin, ladyfinger, cucumber and different types of gourds. The list of berries includes mature, kangleo, nagsheo, gagrueo, kounna and karane, while the flowers include haranche fulla, matuliche fulla, maddachi painni and of course, mango leaves.
