Every year, Bhiwandi’s famous Dhamankar Naka Mitra Mandal Ganesh Mandal comes up with interesting backdrops for its pandals, inspired by movie sets, temples and palaces. Last year, the pandal had a Bahubali setting, which proved to be a huge draw. This time, it has replicated Mathura’s Radha Krishna temple. The mandal’s private security personnel and local police have been deployed to handle the crowds.
The mandal, in its quest to use organic and eco-friendly decor, has used only white cloth — 7,500 metres, 6,500 poles of bamboo and one lakh metres of rope, to create a 125-foot tall replica of Radha-Krishna. Santosh Shetty, president of the mandal said, “Every year, we try to come up with an eco-friendly theme, and last year, we had set up the palace from the famous movie Bahubali. Devotees came from across Bhiwandi, Kalyan, Ambarnath, Dombivli and Thane. This year, we thought of the Radha Krishna temple”. To construct the ‘temple’, the mandal hired over 250 artisans from Kolkata, who worked for 55 days to come up with a replica.
A devotee, Julie Gupta, was very impressed with the pandal. She said the decoration was so authentic, one was transported into the actual temple, which, in reality, is hundreds of miles away. “It is hard to believe they have created such a stunning effect using plain white cloth and bamboos. But we expect no less from the most famous Ganpati pandal in Bhiwandi, where we see something different and unusual every year”.