Manure from temple flowers

Excel Industries to invest Rs 5-10 lakh in the venture

Mumbai-based Excel Industries Ltd (EIL) is learnt to have been investing Rs 5-10 lakh to produce manure generated from the Mahakal temple of Ujjain.

The firm will install a unit that will reduce the 'nirmlaya' or floral offerings made by devotees in the temple. Floral manure has good demand in the Ujjain area.

The machine that reduces the total volume of waste and the time for compost will be installed soon. The Mahakal Temple Trust will talk to Excel Industries in the last week of April regarding this. The trust is also in talks with a non-government organisation called Dronacharaya to produce floral manure in traditional ways.

As many as 5,000 devotees visited the temple every day and the floral offerings or nirmalya quantity exceeded 15 tonnes a day, Shubhkaran Sharma, administrator of the temple committee, told Business Standard on the telephone.

He said: "EIL will install a machine soon. We are in talks with Dronacharya to run a parallel process of manure production."

Floral offerings made by devotees will be made into compost at the temple to produce the manure. Later it will be sold and is expected to fetch Rs 15-20 per kg, according to Sharma.

He said the project was the brainchild of Prathibha Tai (Bawlekar), who is vice-chairperson of the Mumbai Grahak Panchayat (MGP). The Siddhivinayak temple in Mumbai produces a lot of nirmalya, which is converted into manure. EIL has installed a machine in the Mumbai temple also.

The machine churns out raw material for producing manure through the aerobic method. Heaps of waste are allowed to accumulate and a powder is mixed in the ratio of one gram of powder to one kg nirmalaya, for about 20 days. Water is sprinkled regularly and to avoid stink, waste is churned out on a regular basis. The compost gets ready within 35 days.

"Temples in Mumbai generate about 15 tonnes of nirmalaya waste every day, while the Mahakal temple generates 10-15 tonnes and all goes waste and is dumped in the nearby Kshipra River or thrown away. This hurt religious sentiments," said Sharma, adding, "one tonne of floral offering generates 300 kg of manure."

Though the river Kshipra is now highly polluted, the local administration has put no ban on such disposal. Local municipal officials and the district collector were not available for comment.

Among the 12 ancient pilgrimage centres (jyotirlingas), the reference to which is found in the Shiv Purana, Mahakal (Ujjain) is one. Lord Shiva is said to have revealed himself to his devotees in the form of jyoti (light).