Union minister calls on Haryana man making tiles from cow dung
AMBALA: Shivdarshan Malik of Rohtak, who is PhD in chemistry, builds tiles, plaster, mobile stands and flower pots using cow dung.
Malik, 51, who hails from Madina village in the district, has even constructed his home using cow dung in Rohtak city.
As the demand for his products is picking up, a special guest came calling at his house at Sheela bypass in Rohtak on Sunday —Union minister of state for micro, small and medium enterprises Giriraj Singh.
The minister appreciated Malik’s work and said he has done a fabulous job by making these items from cow dung.
“The home developed by Malik using cow dung is perfect. If we make such houses, our rural economy will get a boost. Besides, such a house costs less as compared to concrete ones,” he added. Malik said he had constructed his house over an area of 15X45 sq m at a cost of Rs 5 lakh in 2015.
“After the construction of my house, other people also started taking interest in building such homes. For this, they are giving us orders for tiles, plaster and other items. More than 1,000 houses so far have been constructed by suing cow dung in the northern states,” he said.
He added, “Now we are working to run our tubewells with the help of bulls and we will be able to succeed in this project in the next two months. Today, we briefed the Union minister on this project.” After completing his PhD in chemistry from Maharshi Dayanand University (MDU), Malik has been doing research in the use of biomass in household items. He had worked with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, on waste energy management programme. Besides, he worked under the Word Bank’s village electrification programme in 2002.
Malik and his 15 associates have been preparing ceiling tiles, mobile stands, plaster (to cover house walls) from cow dung since 2015. They have been getting orders for these items from various places, including Hanumangarh district of Rajasthan and Patiala in Punjab, besides many parts of Haryana.
Vani Goyal, an associate of the Malik, said they sell a mobile stand for Rs250, 25 kg plaster for Rs210 and a 2X2- ft tile for Rs 50.