Long before government launched Gobar-Dhan scheme, rural entrepreneurs initiated change
The Centre's launched Gobar-Dhan scheme on Monday hoping to make 'poo to power' a reality. While this step is much needed for sustainable development, rural entrepreneurs in villages of Punjab, Haryana, Tamil Nadu and Uttarakhand have already been doing it for a while now. They brought about a change in their villages by producing electricity from cattle dung. Here are the details.
What is the Gobar Dhan scheme, launched by Uma Bharti?
On Monday, Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation, Uma Bharti launched the Gobar Dhan scheme from Haryana in the presence of state Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar. "The scheme focuses on managing and converting cattle dung and solid waste from farms and fields to useful compost, biogas, and bio-CNG," said Bharti at the launch.
Cattle dung a goldmine of power
The 30 crore cattle population of India produces 30 lakh tonnes of dung daily, which can be used to produce biogas. Through the scheme, government targets to set up 700 biogas plants across the country by 2018-19. Gram panchayats, self-help groups (SGHs) and bulk generators like gaushalas, will receive performance-based incentives from the government.
Stories of change: Haryana brothers have already implemented the idea
Two brothers from Karnal, Haryana, have set up a power plant that generates 2MW electricity per day. Aditya and Amit Aggarwal use this electricity to run two of their industries. Their father was the manager of cow sheds in the village. "We use 20,000-30,000 kg of cow dung daily. For us, cow dung is 'green gold' like people consider milk as 'white gold'," said Aditya.
