Lucknow municipality mulls using 30% cow dung cakes for cremation

Lucknow, 26-Aug-2020

The Lucknow municipal corporation (LMC) is mulling over making the use of 30% cow dung cakes mandatory for traditional cremations citing their low cost and negligible impact on environment as opposed to wood, said Dr Arvind Kumar Rao, additional director, animal welfare, LMC. �The idea came from municipal commissioner Ajay Kumar Dwivedi, who visited Kanha Upvan on Sunday and found around 3,769 cows, 4,578 bulls and 796 calves inside it. They are producing waste in huge quantity, which can be used for making cow dung cakes and compressed natural gas,� he said. The municipal commissioner has also ordered the officials to initiate talks with companies who could market products involving cow urine and compressed natural gas. The LMC controls the crematoriums at Gulalaghat, Bhaisakund and Alambagh where more than 900 quintals of wood is sold in a month. The idea is to reduce pollution by replacing 30% of wood with cow dung cakes. �This would not only save trees but also help individuals in saving money as cow dung cakes come at a much cheaper cost than wood,� said Dr Arvind Kumar Rao. However, the use of cow dung cakes would be made mandatory only after the proposal is passed by the executive committee of the LMC. Some of the corporators have advised the municipal commissioner to take the advice of some religious leaders before making the use of cow dung cakes mandatory in traditional cremation of bodies.
Senior Congress corporator Girish Gupta said, �No one should be forced to use cow dung cakes as cremation of bodies is an emotional issue. We must encourage its use without making it mandatory.� �We will have to use every available resource to run Kanha Upvan. The place has the potential to produce gas, cow urine, cow dung cakes and cow urine based medicines,� said Dwivedi.