Mobile radiation protectors, Lakshmi and Ganesh idols, diyas, face wash, hand wash, hair oil, glass cleaner, room spray..all produced from dung and urine of indigenous cows and on display at Himanshu Kwatra’s Gavyaveda brand outlet in the Aman Park area of Ludhiana. “These are the most popular items, selling like hot cakes ahead of Diwali,” says the 40-year-old, pointing to the Lakshmi-Ganesh idols that cost Rs 150-350 a pair depending on size. The best thing about them and the diyas (oil lamp), he adds, is that they can be reused as manure and “you don’t have to throw after the puja (worship) is over”. Most of the 40-odd items sold by him are made in-house. That includes the cow dung chips priced at Rs 100-150, which, when pasted on mobile covers, can “absorb harmful radiation from cell phones”. Kwatra’s is one among four Gau Samvardhan units in Punjab — the others at Nurmahal, Abohar and Fazilka — that are seeking to market products from dung and urine, which would make it viable for farmers to rear cattle not simply for milk. Kwatra started his facility about three years back after visiting the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s (RSS) Gau Samvardhan unit at Nagpur in Maharashtra that is India’s largest. There are currently about 34 of them across the country. “My outlet registered a profit of Rs 2 lakh on a turnover of Rs 25 lakh in the first year. This financial year, I expect sales of Rs 40 lakh and earning at Rs 5-6 lakh,” claims Kwatra, who procures 500-600 kg of wet dung and 200-250 litres of urine every month. While the idols are made from semi-dried dung, the other products mainly use gaumutra (cow urine) and gobar ark (liquid concentrate extract from dung). “For ark, fresh dung is required. You can extract about 3 litres of ark from 12 kg of wet dung. The ark goes for making oil, face wash, soap, etc, while the dung that remains can be dried and sold as manure fetching Rs 50-60 per 5-kg bag,” he explains. Besides using dung and urine as product ingredients, Kwatra is also selling gaumutra directly packed in 200-ml bottles at Rs 80 each, “pure” ghee at Rs 1,200 per kg and “A2” milk from desi (indigenous) cows at Rs 75 per litre. His unit engages around 40 people for making the various products, in addition to packing and sticking the Gavyaveda labels. Chandrakant, who heads the RSS’ Gau Samvardhan mission in Punjab, wants cow rearing to be made economical even after the animals have stopped producing milk. “Every cow gives 20 kg of gobar and 12-15 litres of gaumutra daily, which can be converted into revenue sources. Once that takes place, farmers will not view non-milking cows as a burden. Right now, they don’t consider it worth spending Rs 90-100 every day just on feeding and maintaining them,” he admits. There is a catch, though, to the solution proposed by the men behind the Gau Samvardhan mission. It is limited only to the produce from indigenous breeds. “We want to revive rearing of Sahiwal, Gir, Rathi and other desi cattle. Farmers should be discouraged from keeping Holstein Friesian and the government must not allow even import of semen from these animals,” states Chandrakant. Kwatra, too, does not take the dung and urine from cows in dairies close to his home, “as they don’t have any desi cattle”. His supply comes from the gaushala (cow shelter) of a Shani Dev temple, some 5 km from his home. Naveen Gupta and Sunil Aggarwal, hosiery industrialists from Ludhiana, who have started rearing 3-4 desi cows each inspired by the Gau Samvardhan campaign, are also providing dung and urine to Kwatra’s unit. However, as per the 2012 Livestock Census (the full results from the latest 2018 Census are still not out), Punjab had a total of 24.28 lakh cattle and 51.60 lakh buffaloes. Within the 24.28 lakh cattle population, 20.65 lakh comprised exotic or crossbred animals. Only the balance 3.63 lakh were of indigenous/non-descript stock. Most of the state’s stray cattle — estimated at roughly 1.25 lakh — are also exotic/crossbred males or unproductive females. The ultimate test of the Gau Samvardhan model would be if it can lead to farmers maintaining cows well after they have ceased giving milk - and also to their replacing Holstein crossbreds with desi breeds. That is still a long way off.
