Celebrate an Eco-friendly Holi

Ideally, the joyous festival of Holi is meant to celebrate the arrival of Spring while the colors used in Holi are to reflect of the various hues of spring season. But unfortunately, in modern times Holi does not stand for all things beautiful. Like various other festivals, Holi too has become ruthlessly commercialized, boisterous and yet another source of environmental degradation.

Harmful Chemicals in Holi Paste type colors
According to their researched fact sheet on Holi, the pastes contain very toxic chemicals that can have severe health effects. Please check the table below to know about the chemical used in various Holi colors and their harmful effects on human body.

Color

Chemical

Health Effects

Black	Lead oxide	Renal Failure
Green	Copper Sulphate	Eye Allergy, Puffiness and temporary blindness
Silver	Aluminium Bromide	Carcinogenic
Blue	Prussian Blue	Contract Dermatitis
Red	Mercury Sulphite	Highly toxic can cause skin cancer

Make your own Holi colours
Holi festival lovers will be thrilled to know that it is possible to make simple natural colors in one’s own kitchen.

Here is a simple and quick way of making some eco-friendly colours for Holi.

• Put some pieces of beet-root in boiling water and let it stay overnight. Amazing coloured water will be ready to be used for Holi in the morning.
  
  
• Take some black grapes and amla and cut them in fine pieces. Put the pieces in boiling water and let the water cool down to get a nice black colour for Holi.
  
  
• Dry petals of marigold flower in shadow and grind them in a mixer; a yellow is ready for you. You can also use turmeric powder as yellow colour. Turmeric powder is very good for skin
  
  
• Prepare green colour by putting spinach, mint and neem leaves in hot water and let it stay for some time. You can also make dry green colour by grinding dried leaves of spinach, mint and neem leaves.