Cattle dung has been used in India to sweep cutcha houses and to make cakes for burning in kitchens. One of the best uses of dung is for making compost etc. manure. Indians, especially Hindus use cow dung for making compost, dung cakes and for religious purposes.
Making dung cakes is now a disregarded practice because most of the kitchens in India have got LPG cylinders due to the efforts of the Indian Government. Cattle rearing has become a neglected practice due to mechanisation of agriculture. Earlier oxen had to pull cultivators in fields, but now this work is done by machines. As such there is very less dung production in villages.
Increasing dairy practices has supported the production of dung up to some extent. However, production of biogas has emerged as a very beneficial practice. Biogas or the gobar gas is a very good source of pollution free energy. The slurry obtained from the biogas plant is a good source of manure for crops.
Burning cow dung for fuel is a very expensive practice as it checks biogas production and formation of organic manure for crops. Now that people recognise the bad impact of synthetic fertilizers, the need of organic manure is increasing for our crops. But reduction of cattle rearing has come as a major hurdle in the production of compost or organic manure and even wormi- compost.
Now cow dung cakes are sold by different agencies. The cost of one kg of cow dung is approximately twenty rupees. People by cow dung cakes for religious purposes like Agnihotra etc.
Burning of cow dunk cake or any dung cake in kitchens is harmful for health as it emits lots of smoke containing different harmful gases. Pure cow dung cakes are hard to find as rearing of desi cows is disregarded due to less milk production.
How to make cow dung cakes? Well, cow dung cakes or dung cakes are made by mixing rice husks in the dung and giving it a particular shape by hand. Then, these structures are dried in the sun and stored under dry conditions in a heap.
Cow dung cakes are cakes made of cow dung and rice husk or any biomass and dried in the sun. Now a days cow dung cakes are sold online by many different companies. It is a new trend since population of cattle is reducing in the country and dairy owners do not care much for the dung. They sell dung on throw away prices. Some persons who rear cows at home make cow dung cakes and store them for rituals.
Key words: cow dung cakes, desi cow, bio-gas
