The first “jute” idol of Durga, 13 foot tall which was designed by Gouranga Kuila, a Bengal-based artist and winner of the National Award for handicrafts in 2002 has paved its way from the Arambagh Durga Puja Samiti pandal to the National Crafts Museum, the largest crafts museum in the country.

The idol was created out of jute in Delhi to create awareness about the ‘dying’ jute industry while also helping in reviving it.

As the condition of jute industry in India is very critical today. They decided to go back to their roots and focus on preserving the dying traditional art forms from Bengal. This is the reason last year’s theme was titled ‘In Search of Roots.

It has been presented to the museum by Abhijit Bose, the president of the samiti which is one of the oldest Durga Puja communities in the city and is located at Panchkuian Road.

The idol, which took three months to be completed, is yet to be inaugurated officially in the museum.

Not only the main idol, but the pandal was also the first of its kind and was made entirely out of jute. It was designed by Subrata Kar, who made his first jute Durga idol in Kolkata in 2015. The pandal gate, with a 45-foot-high artwork of a woman holding a diya, also signified hope for the dying industry.

Since the idol is environment friendly, it was not immersed. So, it was preserve after the festival was over in the crafts museium as a part of handicraft and put it up to showcase.

The government should promote the jute industry by making the use of jute products mandatory.