Soon, incense sticks from flower waste

Soon you could buy organic incense sticks prepared from flowers offered by devotees at various religious places in Himachal Pradesh.Under a campaign ‘Yuvan’, Una-based entrepreneur Ravinder Prashar, with technical support from Dr Y.S. Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry in Nauni in Himachal Pradesh, has developed incense sticks by using flower offerings from temples.

The idea, supported by the Chief Minister’s Startup Scheme, aims to provide a novel solution to the problem of disposal of flowers offered by devotees at places of worship. Additionally, flowers used in religious places and functions will also get a new life in the form of incense sticks. “The objective was to use flowers from temples and utilise them to make organic incense sticks. Through this, we also wanted to provide an alternative to the disposal of flowers in open areas and drains,” Prashar said. Prashar, a bachelor of engineering from BITS-Pilani, had registered a company, Yuvan Vendors, during the last semester of his MBA, a university statement said. After that, he began this with help from the CM’s StartUp Scheme. The company has developed five fragrances, including rose, sandal and lavender. All the sticks are rolled with hand. These will be available to customers from June.