The 2013 Malayalam movie Punyalan Agarbattis and its 2017 sequel Punyalan Private Limited starring Jayasurya told the story of an aspiring entrepreneur who makes incense sticks from elephant dung and mineral water from elephant urine.
The large quantity of elephant dung generated at the rejuvenation camp held every year for temple and mutt elephants in Tamil Nadu has triggered a similar entrepreneurial thought among the officials of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments (HR&CE) Department which manages and controls the temple administration in the State.
With more than two tonnes of elephant dung generated per day during the 48-day annual event, the HR&CE Department has planned to make paper from the dung of the participating elephants.
“Elephant dung is rich in fibre content which makes it a suitable raw material for paper manufacturing. We have developed technology to separate the fibre from the dung and make paper out of it,” said T.K. Ramachandran, Principal Secretary and Commissioner of the HR&CE Department.
Feasible process
The Department conducted a feasibility study and trials before venturing into mass production. “The result was good and we decided to go ahead with the plan,” said Mr. Ramachandran. While the dung generated in the previous camps was given away as manure for farmers, the dung from the 11th edition of the camp which started on Friday will be used for paper manufacturing. As many as 28 elephants attached to temples and mutts in the State are currently attending the camp.
