Dear Pandit ji,

Cow dung cakes are finding a new use these days in north Bihar. Cremation of the dead, which would traditionally be on a pyre of wood, typically a mango tree, is now being replaced with dried sticks made of cow dung. These sticks are called gorha in local parlance.

This innovation occurred due to a shortfall of the Diju variety of mango trees which are otherwise used to burn the deceased as they are thus considered pure.

The floods in Bihar this monsoon had damaged mango orchards extensively. Besides they are always in demand for making furniture as people have a perception that other trees, grown mainly through grafting, are weak. With such dwindling supply, a good replace ment has been found in time.

The forest cover in Bihar is seven per cent and in north Bihar is less than two per cent due to continuous floods. Also the laws for cutting down trees are becoming stricter by the day – catalysing the shift to cow dung.

A professor in Darbhanga university, Vishwanath Jha, has been researching and documenting this innovative method for a long time now.

He sees a potential to conserve green cover by offering socially acceptable solution such as cow dung which is considered as holy and pure due to its usage in other Hindu religious rituals too. In this new method of cremation, people dig a large pit and arrange long rod-shaped cow dung cakes in rows set in three tiers.

The lowest tier comprises three horizontal rows arranged in a scaffolding pattern and an additional fourth layer is added when the soil is moist. Pressure is exerted on the lower layers which break into smaller pieces and help absorb the soil moisture. The lowest tier serves as the podium on which the corpse is laid in a sitting posture to minimise the surface area. A small space is left between tiers to light the pyre while performing the rituals.The flame gradually reaches the lower layers and sets the whole body alight.

Also during the time of floods, a regular occurrence in Bihar, such cremations can be carried out even on the boat. A dead body is placed in a kothi (bigger earthen bowl for keeping grains) along with gorha. After the body is consigned to the flames, kothi is thrown into river.

Santanu Basu
Chanchal College
Chanchal, Malda

Dear Pandit ji,

With reference to your article, ‘Forests Cannot digest all our emissions, September 1-15, 2009, page 71, I would like to express my emphatic agreement. Forest indeed cannot digest it all. The annual absorption of CO2 by Indian Forests is not as much as it is claimed to be. Keeping the forested area in the range of 75- 65 million hectares, it creates a sink with capacity of 1.8 - 2 tonnes of CO2 per hectare per year. In terms of only carbon this comes to be 0.545.

The estimate of International Panel on Climate Change, (IPCC), of being able to sink 10 tonnes carbon is about 18 times higher than what India has achieved. Therefore, IPCC’s opi nion that by con verting 420 million hectares in developing coun tries with forests, with the assumption that one hectare of forests absorbs 10 tonnes of carbon per hectare (36.7 tonnes of CO2) is far beyond the actual performance of Indian forests or most of Asian forests which may at best be 2 tonnes of carbon or 7.34 tonnes of CO2 per hectare or generally lesser.

The temperate forests of Eucalyptus however display better capacity of about 34 tonnes of Carbon dioxide per hectare per year for on a average age of 200 years.

Also one must note that paradox with population density. Today it is 340-350. If one subtracts the land under forests from the mainland, then the effective population density increases upto 430.

Now, look at the population density of the developed countries: USA 31, Canada 3, Australia 3, Norway 14, New Zealand 15, South Africa 36, Sweden 20, Finland 17, Russia 8.5, Portugal 112, Spain 79, Brazil 21, Argentina 14, Peru 22, Chile 20.

Common sense says that any forestation work needs to be done in these countries having vast land area. The developed countries have instead created huge pasture lands now occupying 26 per cent of the world’s lands. They need to put it back to the forests. However the point I want to stress on is the contribution of crops in absorbing CO2. For instance, most agricultural crops absorb in xcess of 30 tonne CO2/ha/yr, as against Indian forests which do only two tonne CO2/ha/yr. (see table)

Crop                              Sink(CO2 per
                                  hectare per year)

Tea                                         54-69
 
Coconut                                   125

Sugarcane                             70-100

Bamboo                                100-200

Sweet Sorghum                         45

Also one kg of biomass generated in farm (Farm yard manure) absorbs 1.46 kg of CO2.

The Indian Society for Plan - tation Crops, (ISPC) under the Chair - manship of Dr. K.V.A. Bavappa had a panel discussion on this subject in early August, 2009. Senior scientists and followed it up with further intensive study and came to the view that if agriculture productivity goes up by 50 per cent of the present base, then by suitable management practice higher crop intensity and increased area under agriculture, CO2 absorption can also go up by 50 per cent, which means another 3 billion tonnes of CO2 will be absorbed. Surely, the farmers need to be rewarded under a revised CDM policy.

K.V.S. Krishna
Chennai