THE AMAZING BENEFITS OF COWDUNG..........by Madhava Gopal Das
1. Fuel - cow dung patties (gootte) for cooking
2. Fertilizer - composting makes it even more powerful
3. Heat source - cow dung is naturally hot -compost makes hotter put in glass house to heat glass house or run pipes thru it to get hot water.
4. Purifier - natural antiseptic qualities
5. Floor coating - used mixed with mud and water on floors in mud houses. Improves water absorption of mud. Prevents muddy puddles resulting from spilt water.
6. Mud brick additive - improves resistance to disintegration
7. Smoke producer - smoldering cow patties keep away mosquitoes. Can also make smoked paneer over such smoke. Tastes great in pasta! Ash - from patties used in cooking.
8. Pot cleaner - used dry absorbs oil and fat wet as a general cleaner
9. Brass polisher - tamarind removes oxidation - wet ashes polishes
10. Fertilizer - alkaline - cow dung ash is basically lime with a few other mineral mixed in
11. Mud additive - dries up slippery mud puddles
12. Mud brick additive - mud and lime (cow dung ashes) becomes like cement
13. Pond PH balancer - thrown into pond neutralizes acid.
14. Tooth polish -
15. Sun-dried organic recreational-aerodynamic-device -cow patty Frisbees
16. Fan for fire - large cow patties can be used as make shift fans.
17. Deity worship - ingredient in panca gavya
18. Skin tonic - mixed with crushed neem leaves smeared on skin - good for boils and heat rash (SP used it for heat rash in Mayapur.)

COWDUNG IS A GOLD MINE

1 As brought out in the Preface to his article entitled “Dung is Gold Mine”, (published by the Viniyog Parivar Trust, Mumbai), Shri Venishankar M.Vasu has brought in simple language but with hard facts, figures and proofs the consequences of government policy of slaughtering animals, which are either not yielding milk or are useless as draught animals. The preface goes on to say “The government has forgotten the third most important service rendered by animals i.e. providing dung which has been at the root of well-laid out social and economic systems adopted by the Aryan population of this great nation since time immemorial”. A copy of the article of Shri Vasu is at Annex V – II (6) to this Report.
2 Shri Vasu has highlighted the unique and essential role of bovines and bovine dung in our economy and has pleaded that the slaughter of our precious animals should be stopped. Shri Vasu has tried to establish that Dung and only dung was the only solution to problems of shortage of food grains, water, fuel, shelter, good health, nutrition, eradication of poverty and unemployment. The important concepts highlighted by Shri Vasu can be summarised thus:
• Dung is the nucleus of our prosperity and has not substitute.
• Our ancient system of medicine i.e. Ayurved cannot subsist in the absence of dung.
• With growing age, an animal may become useless for milk production, field work or for breeding. However, its age is never a detriment to its service for providing dung.
• No other fertilizer in the world is as cheap and harmless as dung fertiliser.
• Unfettered slaughter of animals resulted in disruption in the availability of cattle dung, forcing farmers to use costly and harmful chemical fertilisers.
• By cutting down the availability of bullocks and forcing the use of tractors, the farmer has become dependent on others for availability of fertilisers and tractors. By burdening farmers with the heavy costs of inputs, the cost of production has gone beyond the paying capacity of the farmers.
• Land has lost its fertility and nutrients of the soil have been extracted and not replaced. To replenish such nutrients, cattle dung or organic manure in the best, cheapest, harmless and most easily available manure. The average nutrient in terms of percentage of nitrogen, phosphoric acid and potash contents of different types of manure have been compared. (It is noted here that the composition of cow and buffalo dung are the same).
• If soil has to be prevented from becoming barren, it is necessary to apply 10 bullock cart loads or 5 tonnes of dung manure for each acre of land. With this level of manuring, the yield per acre of different types of crops is given. (It is noted that the yield with optimum level of cow dung in terms of kg/ha is even more than that quoted for fertiliser based production yields).
• Experiments described in Satish Chandra Dasgupta’s book ‘Cow in India’ showed that use of natural manure resulted in yields of 6 and 3 ½ times greater for rice and grass compared to yields without natural manure.
• Government subsidies on fertiliser production were burdening the poor farmers and high prices of food grains were the root cause of inflation.
• As a result of large-scale slaughter of animals resulting in non-availability of dung, millions of Hindus and Muslims, mostly women, have lost their age-old profession of making and selling dung cakes. If a bullock survives even for 5years after becoming useless, it can provide employment to a person for 5 years, whereas, a butchered bullock can provide employment only for a day or two.
• Potters in villages used to build houses and make roof tiles out of mortar, which is a mixture of cattle dung, clay and horse dung. Because of non-availability of dung, the potter has lost his profession.
• Mid-wives in villages, who used to provide oil massage and slow fomentation with burning of dung-cakes to rural women after child-birth have also lost their profession.
• The 16 religious rituals or Sanskars of Hindus cannot be performed without cow dung. Even for the Agni Sanskar, cremation of the dead body on a pyre of cow-dung cakes is required to be done, which is now replaced by a wood-pyre due to non-availability of dung. When an adult bullock is slaughtered, it affects the Sanskar of 10 persons every year and 100 persons in its lifetime.
• Cow dung is also used to purify many medicines such as Bhasmas and herbal medicines. Scarcity of cow dung is affecting the very basis and existence of the Ayurved system of medicine.