| The Kamshet Method Readers might be interested in the following.
Cow dung (gobar) is a rich source of bacteria for organic
farming. Naturally the rural families find it convenient to make cakes out of gobar, dry
them and use them as fuel for cooking. This deprives the soil of valuable nutrients
though.
In Kamshet, Pune District, we have tried a method by which
both these demands can be met. We soak dried dung cakes in water for 36 hours. Five gobar
cakes are used in a drum of 100 litres of water. A small piece of jaggery is added to this
water which serves as a source of energy to the bacteria. A handful of soils is also added
to increase actinomycetes in the solution. The bacteria in the gobar mixes with the
water and multiply rapidly. From an initial bacterial count of 2000 per ml, it goes up to
3 million per ml in the cow dung slurry within 36 hours. This is possible because of the
very short life cycle of bacteria (one generation in 20 mins)
Afetr 36 hours of soaking, the gobar cakes are removed
fromt he drum, dried int he sun and is ready for use in the kitchen.
Isn’t this an excellent example of eating the cake and
keeping it too?
D M Balsaver
Mautinagar, Kamshet
Dist Pune – 410405
|
I am 12 years old and I study in Apeejay School, Saket. My
mother is a subscriber to your magazine, Down To Earth. Through the magazine I came
to know about the environmental hazards faced by our country as well as other countries. I
like Gobar Times too. After reading your Chilika Lake Adventure, I too am
motivated to do something like. I am determined to step forward in order to improve the
status of our environment. I have a proposal for a children’s organisation that would
work for the improvement of the environment. This will certainly help the country. If
there is any such group, please let me know about it.
Kanishka Narayan
Alaknanda, New Delhi – 19
(GT: If anyone wants to respond to Kanishka’s query on children’s clubs, please
write in to us. We will get back to Kanishka on behalf of you.)
I just thought I'd share these ideas with you, hoping that they aren't too
impractical. Can’t we…
(a) Put forward pollution solutions as a business proposition targeting specific
industries and sell them the idea, just like any other product, by elaborating the
disadvantages they face with present wasteful operations and pointing out the advantages
of recycling water and treating/recycling their waste products?
(b) Give lawyers ideas to encourage litigation by the public against polluting industries?
(c) Have industries fund research in institutions in cost-effective and environment
friendly recycling of water and materials and waste disposal methods, and enter into
contracts with the institutions for divulging results at reasonable prices?
(d) Give entrepreneurs ideas to buy and maintain areas of wilderness and promote hiking
and enjoyment of nature among the jaded city people so that people learn to appreciate
just what is being destroyed?
(e) Educate the public with stories in leading womens' and children's magazines?
(f) Propose to the pollution (is there one?) and environment ministries to draw up
programmes and courses for the public to become more aware of and get involved in
practical schemes on a local level to solve their water and air and other environmental
problems?
(g) Approach charitable institutions like the Vivekananda and Ramakrishna Missions and
powerful religious mutts who have sway over industrial and political figures to
spread the message that pollution of food, air and water with chemicals and pesticides
must stop and to encourage people to revert to a more traditional, simple living style?
(h) A major problem in cities is waste. Unemployed youth can be trained in efficient,
environment-friendly garbage disposal techniques (I'm presuming there are such
techniques!) and offer their services for money to neighbourhoods.
In India, success stories of the environment may be possible more in the rural areas,
where people relate to one another as a community and are able to act together to solve
problems, rather than in urban areas, where the mindset is that every problem is to be
solved by the government and there is a dread of involving oneself in any movement. It's
high time we realised that it's our own problem. Thank you for trying to make Indians help
themselves!.
Sudha Shridhar
via website
