Khadi India under Khadi & Village Industries Board, Government of India, is soon launching Vedic Paint made from cow dung. Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport & Highways, Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises Government of India, tweeted on the upcoming product on his Twitter account. He said We will soon introduce a ‘Vedic Paint’ made of cow dung through the Khadi and Village Industries Committee. It will help to boost the village economy and provide additional revenue
Gadkari added that eco-friendly, non-toxic, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and washable paint will be available in distemper and emulsion. It’s going to dry in just four hours. This undertaking would provide livestock farmers with an annual income of up to Rs.55,000.
Cow Dung Art has an interesting history. While it may sound odd to others the experts at the Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute have been creating this kind of paint for years. Giriraj Singh, Minister of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, had informed in a Facebook post that the institute had developed cow dung paint and manufactured it across India. Singh further added that cow dung would be bought at Rs.5 per KG from the livestock farmers for the venture.
The paint will look like normal paint and will cost as little as half of the typical colour when regular painting does. Rs.225/lt, cow dung paint will be available at Rs.110/lt. In October 2020, the Hindi Daily Patrika released a study on Organic Cow Dung Color. It was stated in the study that the Kumarappa National Handmade Paper Institute is developing paint. This paint can be added to walls, wood and metal.
As per the Patrika report, the paint is consistent with national and international standards. The institute has tested on all aspects, including thickness, smoothness and brushing. It has been reviewed by national and international level government and private labs. It will be available in 2lt to 30lt packing. While talking about the production from raw material, it mentioned that by using 100 KG of cow dung, 30-40 KG paint could be manufactured. That means, if a production unit consumed 500 KG of cow dung daily, it could produce up to 200 KG of paint.