An ancient art of wooden trumpet making, now existing only in Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh and Rishikesh in Uttarakhand, has gone environment friendly.

The ancient musical instrument, still used in Uttarakhand hills, , better known as called 'Yidaki'; and 'Didgeridoo' in Australia, where it first originated, gone environment friendly by using waste wood instead of chopping fresh trees to make this long wind instrument.

Up to now, Eucalyptus trees were cut down and hollowed from the trunk, to make a trumpet 1-3 metres in length. Hence, sometimes a single tree was used to prepare one long trumpet, informed the only manufacturer of this instrument in Varanasi, Mithun Bhattacharya. According to Bhattacharya who is also a trainer of this several thousand years old drope pipe, also referred to as wooden trumpet or aerophone, the unique trumpets, which are still an integral part of the social-religious culture of Uttarakhand and other states, is manufactured only in Rishikesh and Varanasi.

Making the trumpet greener, the manufacturers are now putting to use useless furniture, waste materials, to create trumpets.

According to Bhattacharya, around 40-50 Yidakis are manufactured in a month, cost of per instrument vary from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 depending upon the size, shape and designs.
----