Floods wash away months of toil in this sculptors' village in Karnataka

Ganesha Chaturthi is right around the corner and the entire state, recovering from the impact of the floods, is waiting for the festivities to take the edge off the calamity. But, the switch from a disaster to festivities isn’t easy for the idol makers in Konnur village of north Karnataka’s Gokak Taluk, who are trying to cope with the devastation caused to their livelihood by the floods. Sculptors of this village supply idols of Lord Ganesha all over Karnataka and to Maharashtra and Goa during the festival.

“We lost 6 lakh Ganesha idols worth ₹6 crore in the floods. It had taken us a year to make them,” says Appanna Shankrappa Kumbar, a traditional idol maker who has been in the business from the past 60 years. Appana, who owns a shop called Kadusiddeshwara Idol Makers in the village says they were not warned about the floods in time.

“By the time officials warned us, it was too late to even move the idols to another place. There are eight godowns in this area alone,” he adds. Around 400 people involving 12 families (traditional idol makers) and locals work for Appana.

It had just been 15 days since the idols were being delivered to customers across the three states. Appanna’s son Mallikarjun Kumbar, also an idol maker says most of their clients had paid them an advance amount. “Customers had paid between ₹50,000 to ₹1 lakh two months ago. We don’t know how to repay them now. If all of them come together asking for money, we will be in deep trouble,” Mallikarjun says.

It’s been seven days since the disaster hit the village, but no local leader has visited them, rue villagers. Though members of the village panchayat have visited the godowns to survey the damaged idols, they have made no promises of relief or compensation, they say. “Ramesh Jharikiholi (Congress leader) is one of the local leaders here. But he only cares about the scheduled tribe (ST) community, to which he belongs. He has never shown any concern about the kumbars (idol makers) or any other community here,” says an outraged Mallikarjun.

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Other than Ganesh idols, the idol making community in Konnur has lost their most treasured asset – moulds. There are around 10-12 godowns in the village and each such godown has lost 400-450 moulds. “It takes eight to 10 days to make a 3-feet tall mould. Each mould costs around ₹15,000 to ₹40,000 depending on its size. We cannot use the mould if there is a single scratch on it,” says Suresh Mallappa Kumbar, another traditional idol maker.

Appanna had also taken a special order for eco-friendly Ganesha idols this year. This order was worth ₹5 lakhs which was supposed to be delivered to Goa. “The efforts that I, my father and our grandfathers have put in the past 60 years, has drowned in floodwaters this year. These godowns, racks and moulds were not built overnight,” Mallikarjun adds.