With the ongoing Corona pandemic and for the ban on use of plastic, the thermocol and plastic boats have given place to the old traditional eco-friendly boats this year. Earlier, people used to float boats made up of banana stems to celebrate the ‘Boita Bandana Utsav.’ In the Utsav, the tradition is to sail tiny boats in river and water bodies on Kartik Purnima to remember the rich maritime past of the state.
Boita stands for boat or ship. The festival is a mass commemoration of the state’s glorious maritime history when it was known as Kalinga and tradesmen and mariners known as sadhabas traveled on boitas to trade with distant island nations that share borders with the Bay of Bengal like Indonesia, Java, Sumatra and Bali.
Kartik Purnima is also celebrated as Gurupurab or Prakash Parva that is Guru Nanak Jayanti Worldwide.
The usage of termocol and plastic boats are polluting the water bodies, causing dame to aquatic animals and water. So, the using banana stem boat for sail is a better idea of keeping environment eco-friendly.
Boat making with a banana tree [Watch]
