BARGARH: Painting mud houses with cow dung is a practice followed in many villages not just in Odisha but across the country even today. A Bargarh-based entrepreneur Durga Priyadarshini has been able to give this primitive concept a modern twist.
Founder of a startup Gaumaya Agro Pvt Ltd, she has been manufacturing eco-friendly paints from cow dung. And in the process, she has provided employment to many rural youths and resolved the problem of cattle abandonment to some extent. Today, she runs two manufacturing units in Bargarh district.
A resident of Bargarh, Durga did her PG in history from Ranchi University. She married a chartered accountant 8 years back and travelled throughout the country due to the nature of her husband’s job in MNCs. However, when life got monotonous, Durga thought of starting a business of her own.
“I was always keen on starting a dairy unit and during the lockdown in 2020, I took training on dairy farming at Desimoo in Haryana,” she said. During her training, the huge piles of cow dung at the dairy farm grabbed her attention.While Durga was oblivious about the cow dung lying unutilised, she was also disheartened to see the mishandling of the cows which had stopped nursing the calves.
She continued her research to find how cow dung could be utilised and learnt about the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC)’s recent development of Khadi Prakritik Paint from cow dung. Durga then attended a workshop of KVIC to learn the manufacturing process and other spects of cow dung paints in Jaipur.
Last year, Durga set up her first unit in Rajasthan where her husband was posted. With limited resources and support of a few friends, she looked after everything from manufacturing to marketing and advertising to spread awareness among the public about the benefits of the cow dung paint in Rajasthan and Delhi NCR initially.
As the word spread, she started getting orders from many other states. There has been no looking back since then.After expanding her unit in Rajasthan, she decided to get back to her roots and set up another plant in her hometown Ambapali in Bargarh district in December, 2021.“My objective of opening a unit in my village was not only to expand my business but to also help in community development,” Durga said.
Through her startup, Durga procures cow dung at Rs 5 per kg from local dairies, providing an additional income to the dairy farmers. The move has helped in curbing abandoning or trading of cattle which have stopped producing milk.In the last six months, Durga has managed to sell over 10,000 litres of paint from her plant here in Ambapali.
Today, ‘Gaumaya’ offers over 1,000 shades of cow dung based interior and exterior paints besides primer. Moreover, research and development for eco-friendly putty is underway.Durga has shifted her base to Bargarh and is staying here with her son, while her husband works in an MNC in Gurgaon now. Her products are being marketed in many states including Karnataka, Telangana, Delhi, Gujarat besides, Odisha and Rajasthan.
She claims Gaumaya is the first such product in the entire country. “Chemical paints are slow poison and people are still unaware of its harmful effects. Cow dung paints are eco-friendly and a toxin-free alternative,” Durga said.