Board to promote cow dung

Highlighting its fiat dated October 1998 to ban display of bears, monkeys, tigers, panthers and lions in circuses, he said the Board was going to popularise the use of cow dung and cow urine throughout the country.

The AWBI has decided to set up seven model gaushalas (cow-sheds) in Ider (Sabarkantha), Jaipur, Nagpur, Neemuch (Madhya Pradesh), Varanasi, Akola and Narnaul (Haryana) where the Centre would extend Rs 5 lakh annually to each to convert cow dung into manure and pesticides. He said the Board had also recently recommended to the Union Ministry of Agriculture as well as Finance to set up 10,000 such gaushalas all over the country and promote them financially for at least five or 10 years, which may lessen the damage reportedly caused by chemicals and toxic fertilisers.

“We hope that the Centre would approve the project, for a panel consisting economists has proved that no cattle was uneconomical, because, even if a cow didn’t give milk or a bullock was not used, its dung and urine could still be converted into manure, fertiliser, bio-gas, pesticides, medicines and even electricity”, he said.

He said he would ask his 18 executive members and 28 other board members to carry out a scientific study on the use of elephants in commercial, marriage and religious processions.

“If the study finds that the elephants are ill-treated, we will take up the matter with the Apex court and seek a ban on it,” he said, adding none of the NGOs had raised the issue till date.

He said he was aware of activities where elephants were used, including in polo sports and in religious festivals.

He said the Board would also check the population boom in dogs in several metropolitan cities in the country. “The Board recently formulated guidelines for control of stray dog population to reduce the killing of dogs. While a sterlisation and immunisation programme has been launched in Mumbai, Chennai, Calcutta, Delhi, Hyderabad and Mangalore, it will be extended to other cities also,” he said, and praised the role of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in the context. Earlier in the day, he held talks with activists of the Gujarat Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Vadodara Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Hinsa Nivaran Samiti and Pashu Sewa Kendra of Vadodara and exhorted them to intensify their activities.