This story is from July 30, 2019

In Bijnor, Raksha Bandhan set to go eco-friendly

This Raksha Bandhan, Bijnor is set to witness eco-friendly rakhis, made out of cow dung, making a splash in the markets. At least that’s what Nagina-based Shree Krishna Gaushala, which has been making them, claims.
In Bijnor, Raksha Bandhan set to go eco-friendly
Nagina-based Shree Krishna Gaushala is making rakhis out of cow dung for Raksha Bandhan
BIJNOR: This Raksha Bandhan, Bijnor is set to witness eco-friendly rakhis, made out of cow dung, making a splash in the markets. At least that’s what Nagina-based Shree Krishna Gaushala, which has been making them, claims.
And, at the forefront of this innovative idea is a 52-year-old NRI, Alkha Lahoti, who decided to leave her job in Indonesia to assist her father in running the cowshed, which was established in 1953.

The gaushala houses more than 117 cows and churns out various products from cow dung. Earlier, the cowshed used to produce cow dung slabs used in cremation, flower-pots and phenyl made out of cow dung and urine. But now, the cowshed has been focusing on making eco-friendly rakhis.
Talking about she was inspired to make cow dung rakhis, Lahot told TOI, and “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.”
Sharing her experience on what kinds of setbacks they faced while making cow dung rakhis, Lahoti 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.”
Further describing about how rakhis are prepared, Lahoti says, “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.”
She added, “We have fixed some nominal rates for the rakhis. Hope they sell well, otherwise we will distribute it to the people for free on Raksha Bandhan.”
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