The Green Holi: Spreading Colours of Joy and Happiness Across Mother Earth!!

A very very happy Holi to everyone!! I wish you and your families lots and lots of happiness, joy and good health always, and may your life continue to shine as bright and vibrant as the colours of Holi!! Holi is my favourite festival of the year, filled with so much positivity, cheer, playfullness, energy and togetherness. Playing with your friends, spreading joy through all the gulaal and pichkaris to your family and community, enjoying guijya and sweets, the splashes of colour and having so much fun and precious time with your loved ones are what make Holi so iconic and special.

Although, modern celebrations often involve excessive water wastage, while chemical dyes in gulaal and pakka rang contaminate soil and groundwater. Single-use plastic pollution is extremely high during Holi, due to plastic pichkaris, packaging, and water balloons that can be very harmful to animals, and marine life in water bodies.

But, just as the colours of holi evoke hope and positivity, we can make some small changes to our celebrations, keeping the planet in mind, to ensure a happier, more joyful and healthy celebration for the ecosystem and all its living beings!!

Firstly, we must use 100% organic, natural and herbal colours, such as Phool Gulaal. Artificial, synthetic colours contain chemicals like lead, chromium and mercury, which can be extremely damaging to flora and fauna. Using natural colours is very good for our health, as they are safe for our skin and eyes. They give an amazing fragrance, and have no chemicals, preserving the environment!!

Secondly, we must be mindful of our water usage in Holi. Estimates suggest over 300 million litres of water are wasted across India during Holi. We must make sure to turn off the hose pipes or the taps in our houses and communities after filling up our pichkaris. We should try and avoid playing with water balloons, as they use up a lot of water, and in case they fall or burst accidentally or miss, all that precious water just goes to waste. We can limit how long we play with water during Holi to maybe 30 minutes instead of 2-3 hours, and play dry holi after that to preserve water.

Lastly, to minimize plastic wastage, we must re-use our pichkaris every year. Buying and discarding pichkaris every year leads to a lot of plastic waste in landfills, that can harm ecosystems. Re-using our pichkaris preserves valuable resources, and protects biodiversity from the harmful effects of single-use plastics. If we do play with water balloons, we must make it a necessity to have a post-celebration cleanup with our friends, to pick up the balloons to protect any animals from ingesting it. Me and my friends have been doing this every Holi, a very small thing we can do in very little time to ensure that no living beings are impacted by our celebration.

And that is how we can make small changes to our Holi celebration to contribute to a more cleaner and healthier environment all around us, preserving nature and all its living beings, while having the most fun time of our year. Let's celebrate a Holi that paints our lives with joy and positivity, and instead of staining the Earth with a grey future, cleanse it with colours of hope, empathy, togetherness and care, for a greener tomorrow!!