Pashudhan praharee network, 9th August ,2019
Bijnor is all set to witness an eco-friendly Raksha Bandhan. A local group, Shree Krishna Gaushala is rolling out rakhis made of cow dung.
Krishna Gaushala is rolling out rakhis made of cow dung.
The initiative is being spearheaded by 52-year-old NRI Alkha Lahoti. She quit her job in Indonesia to help her father run a cowshed in Nagina, a small town in Bijnor district of Uttar Pradesh. The rakhis are made in Lakhotia’s cowshed.
The gaushala, which houses more than 117 cows, churns out various products made of cow dung. They also produce cow dung slabs used for cremation. Apart from this, they manufacture flower-pots and disinfectant (phenyl) made from cow dung and gau mutra.
However, they have shifted their focus on eco-friendly rakhis now.
“I am associated with Juna Akhara and had gone to Kumbh event this year and displayed my rakhis. There, our product was well received. The saints there asked me to make such type of rakhis for public. Then, I contacted other experts and discussed the matter with them. So far, I have received orders from Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Uttrakhand and Orissa. I have prepared thousands of rakhis for the upcoming festival,” daily Times of India quoted Alkha Lahoti as saying.
She also spoke about the challenges she faced while manufacturing these rakhis. She said, “Initially, the rakhis we made out of cow dung got damaged easily. But, as we continued with our experiment, we were finally able to come up with strong and hard rakhis. We were able to achieve the consistency by storing the rakhis at a dark and cool place, outside the reach of sunlight.”
Describing the process of manufacturing, Lahoti said, “First, we prepare a template of different shapes and sizes, and then we put the raw cow dung into these templates and store it in a cool and dark place. Once it becomes dry, we then decorate it with eco-friendly colours and use threads instead of plastic ones. Contrary to the Chinese rakhis, our rakhis are eco-friendly. They can be decomposed and turned into manure after their use.”
The rakhis are being sold for a nominal price. Lakhotia said that if rakhis are unsold, these would be distributed for free.
