Fifteen cows that were sold by their owners to slaughter houses due to poor milk yield, age and physical ailments took the centre stage at the Maattu Pongal celebrations at Kurudampalayam Panchayat. The animals were rescued by an association in December 2013 when they were being taken to Kerala. And now the animals help the Panchayat in converting organic waste into manure.
Maattu Pongal is an occasion to thank the animals for the livelihood they provided to mankind. About 200 people, including District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) officials, Panchayat representatives and villagers gathered at the waste management plant to thank the cows for converting the organic waste into manure (dung) throughout the year.
Tha. Murugan, Project Director of DRDA, Coimbatore, told The Hindu that the six wards in the Panchayat where integrated and sustainable solid and liquid resource management (SLRM) project was implemented generated about three tonnes of wastes everyday. “It includes about one tonne organic waste, of which a major share is banana leaves and vegetables wastes,” the Project Director said. He added that it would take more than five weeks for the leaves to decompose and become organic manure. While the cows take only eight hours to convert the wastes into manure, he said.
About 1.5 cylinders of biogas could be prepared from the waste and the waste is then used for vermin compost. Four of the cows have also yielded calves.
A woman ward councillor of the Panchayat who was initially sceptical about the project, on Friday volunteered to make Pongal for the cows recognising them for being useful in whatever ways they could.
Panchayat President D. Ravi said that the good job done by these rescued animals inspired the villagers. Two villagers who did not want to sell their cows to be slaughtered donated them to the SLRM plant. “One cow yielded two calves,” Mr. Ravi said.
