MYSURU: If you come across an eco-friendly brown sheet with a thick layer, don’t pooh-pooh it. It could be made of processed elephant dung. The state will soon start to manufacture raw paper from elephant poo.
Principal Chief Conservator of Forests (PCCF), Wildlife, Jayaram told media persons on Sunday that a private company from the state, involved in the making of papers using elephant dung, has been permitted to lift the dung produced at Dubare elephant camp.
Following the agreement, the company will be collecting the dung as and when the sufficient quantity of the same is made available at the camp in the coming days. They will be paying a nominal amount in return to the department.
Jayaram said, “The animal excreta will be processed and recycled before producing the stationery material mostly using coir in the same. On an average, Asian elephants defecate 16 times a day and African elephants 18 times. However, it could be either inside the wood or in the camps. Moreover, the quantity of dung produced in a day also varies, with the pachyderms producing more dung after feeding on bark and wood of trees and less from paddy straw.”
Special postal cover
As a prelude to the eco-friendly initiative, a special postal cover made using the dung was released to mark the celebration of World Elephant Day outside Mysuru Airport at Mandakalli on Mysuru-Nanjangud Road. It’s a joint initiative of the Forest Department and Department of Posts, that was dedicated by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy. Jayaram said the postal covers assume significance with a life-size portrait of baby elephant in the front highlighting the conservation of the same for posterity.