A 52-Year NRI named Alka Lahoti who left her job in Indonesia to join her father’s gaushala in Nagina, Bijnor has found an eco-friendly way to make rakhi’s – with cow dung.  

The cowshed, which has more than 117 cows, manufactures various products made out of cow dung. From flower-pots to phenyl made out of gau mutra, this gaushala has it all covered.  

For this new product, Alka mentioned, 

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. 

She also added that making these rakhis was not an easy task.  

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. 

She also added the entire process of making these eco-friendly alternative, 

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.