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NEW DELHI: The market for organic, natural-origin Holi colours appears to be “much larger” this year than before, an indication that many Indians are turning to eco-friendly ways of celebrating one of the country’s biggest festivals. Still, the share of natural colours is a fraction of overall sales, manufacturers said.
Manufacturers, mainly small enterprises, say demand for eco-friendly colours has also pushed up wholesale prices of raw materials, mostly sourced from the farm and horticulture sectors. Base ingredients for natural colours include beetroot, flowers, lemongrass and turmeric, etc, whose prices have gone up between 10-20%, a trader said.
Holi festivities, a two-day boisterous festival of colours cutting across cultures, began on Friday. “Colour manufacturers mostly use chemical-based toxic ingredients that are both unsafe for the skin and the environment,” said Natasha Treasurywala, who works with Veersa, a non-profit organisation advocating eco-friendly festivals.
In a July 2012 paper, researchers Joy Joseph Gardner from the University of Rajasthan and Deepanjali Lal from Jaipur National University studied the effects of toxic colours on the environment. They found these chemical-based colours caused serious allergic reactions in a third of those surveyed.
“These colours are prepared from harmful substances such as acids, mica, glass powder and alkalis. They are not readily degradable under natural conditions and are typically not removed from waste water by conventional waste water treatments. Thus, several bacteria have been found to decolourise, transform and completely mineralise coloured soil and water in both aerobic and anaerobic conditions,” the study found.
Kaushik Rana, who runs Apex Traders Ltd, a colour-making enterprise in Noida near Delhi, said: “We were always into natural colours, but this year, retailers placed higher demand. This pushed up costs of materials like lemongrass and turmeric by almost 20%.”
Meera Singh, a resident of East Delhi, said they googled where to get natural colours and there are lots out there and ordered them.
Ankur Baruah, a businessman from Assam’s Guwahati, said his family avoided too “much colour playing” after his wife suffered a serious eye allergy from colours a few years ago. Baruah’s family then turned to natural colours sourced from Liza Creators, a manufacturer based in the city’s Fancy Bazaar trading hub.
Start-ups are exploiting the space for eco-friendly stuff. Phool, a start-up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, has recycled flowers left in temples to make organic colour, according to its proprietor Ankit Agarwal.
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