Puri:
Across the globe Santa Claus wears red clothes, but at the golden beach of Puri he has gone green. A 160-feet-long sand sculpture of Santa Claus, claimed to be the longest in size, has been made in green colour to spread the message of Go-Green to fight against global warming.
It is the work of the internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarsan Patnaik, who had won the Limca Book of Records in 2006 for making a 100-feet-long sand Santa Claus. But this year, the sculpture is 160 ft long, 30 ft wide and 30 ft high, and is made by using 1500 tons of sand.
Patnaik has also used green-coloured sand to match with the green robes of Santa.
"Puri is the place where sand art started in the 14th century and the tourist inflow to Puri is another reason why I chose Santa as the subject at this time of the year," he said.
The artist has so far participated in more than 42 international sand sculpture championships across the world and won many awards including 2008 world championship title at Berlin.