PANAJI
Colours play a major role in some of the most popular festivals in Goa including Holi, Rangapanchami, Shigmotsav and Gulal, but most stay away from enjoying these festivals due to the harmful chemicals in the colours.
Bringing a simple solution to this, Suryakant Gaonkar from Sattari has innovated chemical-free, eco-friendly natural colours and has been marketing them in Goa for the past few years. He makes these plant-based colours from leaves, flowers and roots.
For Shigmotsav, Gaonkar has added parrot green colour to his set of colours this year.
“The five colours that I am offering this year are orange, yellow, blue, green and parrot green, which are home-made, 100% natural, eco-friendly and chemical-free. They are skin-friendly too, as they are completely safe to be used on the skin of even children,” says Suryakant Gaonkar, who has innovated these plant-based colours after much experimentation.
Experimenting since 2013, Gaonkar along with the help of some of his friends, Sachin Madge and Navso Parwar, have zeroed on corn flour as a mixing agent for the colours.
“Corn flour does not stick to the skin and can be easily washed away. I have used flowers of palash and sawari, turmeric, beetroot, neem and palak leaves to make my colours,” says Gaonkar who packs his colours in paper packaging.
Inspired by environmentalist Rajendra Kerkar in 2005, Gaonkar joined Vivekanand Environment Awareness Brigade and for the next five years, he visited schools to bring environmental awareness among children. He was feted for his contribution to environmental awareness by various organisations and was also bestowed with the biodiversity award by the Goa State Biodiversity Board in 2020.
Learning from rural tribal communities, Gaonkar came across an organisation Nisargamitra from Kolhapur and it was here that he came to know about trees that could be potentially used for making colours.
“Anil Chowgule, a member of Nisargamitra taught me about these trees and it was since then that I have been experimenting with natural colours,” says Gaonkar.
The trees in the local forests in Goa have enough capacity to produce natural colours, but this has not been seen as a commercial venture as yet. Goankar has produced 700 kilos of colours this year. He and his family wander in the forests of Bhuipal, Tambdi Surla, Virdi-Maharashtra to collect flowers that are dried and powdered to mix with other ingredients like dried leaves and roots. The Gaonkar family engages entirely in this tedious task of collecting, drying, and powdering the raw material for these natural colours which takes hours.
Last year Gaonkar’s eco-friendly colours were available at Patanjali chain of stores and an eco-friendly store in Panaji, Dhairyansh Green. This year several people from the neighbouring States visited Gaonkar to see and buy his natural colours. Those who wish to make their festivals colourful and yet stay safe from harmful chemical colours can contact Suryakant Gaonkar on 9764397196.
