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STORY: INDIA / KOLKATA DURGA PUJA 2025
TRT: 03:13
SOURCE: UN NEWS HINDI
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 29 – 30 SEPTEMBER 2025, KOLKATA, INDIA
29 SEPTEMBER 2025, KOLKATA, INDIA
1. Various shots, Kashi Bose Lane Durga Puja Pandal themed Pakdandi (The Winding Path), a tribute to the Bengali writer Leela Majumdar
2. Pan left, UN Resident Coordinator in India Shombi Sharp next to Pakdandi installation
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Shombi Sharp, Resident Coordinator in India, United Nations:
“This is really truly all inspiring. This is my first visit to Durga Puja which is the greatest public art festival in the world, inscribed in UNESCO intangible cultural heritage already some years back, and I'm really now seeing why what all the buzz is about.”
4. Various shots, Tala Prattoy Durga Puja 2025 themed Beej Angan (Seed Courtyard), promoting organic farming and reflecting on growth, nature, and new beginnings
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Shombi Sharp, Resident Coordinator in India, United Nations:
“This pandal has been going on for a hundred years. This year in particular, it's such an inspiring subject. You see goddess Durga behind us really celebrating organic sustainable food systems and agriculture. Normally goddess Durga is, you know, defeating evil. In this case, I don't know if you can see behind me but the evil that the goddess Durga is defeating is pesticides and unsustainable agricultural practices.”
6. Med shot, Sharp
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Shombi Sharp, Resident Coordinator in India, United Nations:
“That really resonates with the messaging that we in the United Nations are promoting about sustainable agriculture. It's planting the seed of thought and this pandal alone is expected to see something like 12 or 13 million visitors. So, you can imagine, you know, 13 million people learning about the importance of sustainable organic agriculture.”
8. Various shots, Dakshindari Youths Durga Puja, themed Dahan (Burning) a narrative highlighting courage, resilience, and the fight against violence toward women
9. SOUNDBITE (English) Shombi Sharp, Resident Coordinator in India, United Nations:
“This is a combination, a fantastic combination of course the traditional celebration of Durga Puja in terms of worshiping, but also a celebration of arts and talent and creativity and innovation of the young generation in particular here in Kolkata and elsewhere.”
10. Various shots, Sharp interacting with Durga Puja Pandal organisers
11. SOUNDBITE (English) Shombi Sharp, Resident Coordinator in India, United Nations:
“This cuts to the heart of the sustainable development goals because really what we see here is if you're just talking about things on paper or just talking about statistics or something, that's one thing. But here it's living, it's breathing, it's alive. You see the people coming through interacting with the installations, interacting with the goddess Durga, and interacting with the messages the really important social messages.”
30 SEPTEMBER 2025, KOLKATA, INDIA
12. Various shots, Pratapaditya Roy Road Trikon Durga Puja, themed Debdarshan (Beholding the Divine), as a tribute to Raja Ravi Varma
13. Various shots, Sharp dancing with the locals
14. Tilt down, crowds
Durga Puja, inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as an element of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, transforms India’s eastern state of Bengal into the world’s largest public art festival - an immersive blend of worship, art, and social messaging.
For a few autumn nights, Kolkata (and other parts of West Bengal) becomes an open-air gallery where neighbourhoods build dazzling temporary temples (pandals), artisans from Kumartoli sculpt the goddess from river clay, drummers (dhaakis) roll thunder through the streets, and millions wander from one illuminated dreamscape to the next.
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in India, Shombi Sharp, said this year marked his first visit to the century-old pandal now spotlighting sustainable agriculture.
He said, “this pandal has been going on for a hundred years. This year in particular, it's such an inspiring subject. You see goddess Durga behind us really celebrating organic sustainable food systems and agriculture. Normally goddess Durga is, you know, defeating evil. In this case, I don't know if you can see behind me but the evil that the goddess Durga is defeating is pesticides and unsustainable agricultural practices.”
Sharp said, “that really resonates with the messaging that we in the United Nations are promoting about sustainable agriculture. It's planting the seed of thought and this pandal alone is expected to see something like 12 or 13 million visitors. So, you can imagine, you know, 13 million people learning about the importance of sustainable organic agriculture.”
He said, “this is a combination, a fantastic combination of course the traditional celebration of Durga Puja in terms of worshiping, but also a celebration of arts and talent and creativity and innovation of the young generation in particular here in Kolkata and elsewhere.”
Durga Puja is also a living laboratory for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), translating abstract ideas into tangible experience: sustainable agriculture, disability inclusion, gender equality, and dignity in diversity.
The Resident Coordinator said, “this cuts to the heart of the sustainable development goals because really what we see here is if you're just talking about things on paper or just talking about statistics or something, that's one thing. But here it's living, it's breathing, it's alive. You see the people coming through interacting with the installations, interacting with the goddess Durga, and interacting with the messages the really important social messages.”
Durga is one of the powerful female figures in the Hindu pantheon of gods, often shown on a lion. The symbolism runs deep. Durga’s victory over evil is celebrated, yes - but so is community over isolation, creativity over routine, and collaboration over hierarchy.
In December 2021, UNESCO placed Kolkata’s Durga Puja on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, describing it as “the best instance of the public performance of religion and art, and a thriving ground for collaborative artists and designers.”
Durga Puja is also a creative economic powerhouse. A 2019 study estimated the festival’s industries generate USD 4.53 billion - about 2.58% of West Bengal’s GDP. The breadth of imagination is jaw-dropping - from a replica of the Sistine Chapel to famous palaces around the world can be found in the pandals.
