Holi Special- 4 Tips To Go Eco-friendly This Holi

Water balloons and pichkaris, brightly coloured powders (gulal) and paint, water guns and sprinklers; the perfect way to usher in Holi, the exuberant festival of colours. Holi, a festival where geysers of colours shoot in the air, the atmosphere filled with mischief, people dousing each other with colors and water, and immersing themselves in masti and mazza (fun).

But here is some food for thought on this day of joy – if one person uses a single bucket of water (the minimum) to play Holi, he uses a minimum of 15 litres in a single day. Assuming that five lakh out of the estimated population of any city play Holi with water, there is a wastage of 75 lakh litres of water in the day.

* Make your own colors

Make colors at home. Your friends and neighbors will love you for this, as there are no harsh chemicals to deal with and no side effects. Plus, they are easily washable from the skin and clothes, thus reducing water consumption drastically. Gram flour, turmeric, fuller’s earth, sandal wood powder, henna powder; these can be used to make myriad colors. Flowers like marigold and gulmohar, and vegetables like beetroot can be easily used to create fine colors. Most of these ingredients are used in kitchens and beauty face packs.

* Tilak Holi

Move away from throwing colours and water on each other. Opt for a simple Tilak Holi, where you celebrate by applying tilak (a mark on forehead) on each other

* Phoolon Ki Holi

You can celebrate Holi with flowers too. Many parts of North India like Lucknow, Pushkar, etc., indulge in this type of celebration. The fun and frolic gets tripled in this Holi with people dressed up as Krishna and Radha and ushering in spring and new life with flower petals. Songs accompanied to the beat of drums makes the atmosphere electric. One thing to note – appropriate arrangements have to be made for used flowers, and they should not be dumped in water.

* Waterless Holi

No water in pichkaris, no hurling water balloons, paints and bags on each other. In short, a dry Holi is one with only colours and no water.