By Anil Sharma, IANS
Jaipur : Don’t be surprised to find packaged cow dung cakes sitting pretty with toiletries and groceries at retail stores here.
After cow urine or ‘gau mutra’, packaged cow dung cakes or ‘kanda’ have now hit the market and they are the brainchild of the city-based Gau Sena, which literally translated means ‘cow army’.
The Gau Sena, which has launched the product under the brand Gauvar in Jaipur, claims it has mixed many ingredients in the cow dung cake so that burning it could purify the environment. The cakes would also help keep diseases at bay, the organisation claims.
Gau Sena chief Sandeep Gupta said, “The objective of launching packaged cow dung cakes is for the welfare of cows. Our main objective for marketing this product is to collect money and spend the same for the welfare of cows.”
The cakes are manufactured at Shri Ramdev Gaushala Samiti at Bagru, some 30 km from state capital Jaipur.
“People abandon cows on roads if they stop giving milk, but if they can earn some money from cow dung, at least they would not let them loose,” he said.
Gupta said the product has cow dung, water of the holy Ganges river, cow urine, rose water, cow milk, items of fire sacrifice – ‘hawan samagri’, rose petals, rice, clove, cardamom, the ayurvedic product guggal, camphor, butter, sawdust of the mango tree, ‘itra’ (essence), extract of tulsi, sandalwood powder and sand from the feet of sacred cows.
Each of the 100-gram cakes costs Rs.21. “We have already procured Rs.2 million in orders from Jaipur-based people and organisations,” Gupta said.
Cow dung or ‘gobar’ is primarily used as a fertiliser in India and is still in use as fuel in villages. It is also used to generate electricity through biogas plants.
“In villages, cow dung is used to line the floor and the walls of buildings owing to its insect repellent properties and as a thermal insulator in cold places,” he said.
According to experts, cow dung has excellent mosquito repellent properties and is used by many companies to produce repellents.
Modern science acknowledges that the smoke from cow dung is a powerful disinfectant and an anti-pollutant. Cow urine is also used for religious rituals as well as medicinal purposes.