It is dung ho in Hangala panchayat

Animal waste has been used to transform economy.

Nestled in the Western Ghats, off the Bandipur National Park in south-west Karnataka, is a small village "" Hangala.

Its claim to fame is the village panchayat which bears its name and has used a common local resource, animal waste or dung, to build a self-sustaining and vibrant economy.

In the process it has displayed strong grassroots business savvy which has improved the lives of its members and allowed them to look forward to a better future.

Hangala panchayat, whose writ stretches over eight villages where live 8,000 people, has a large cattle population estimated at 3,200. The dung generated by the cattle is in huge demand in the neighbouring coffee-growing districts of Kodagu in Karnataka, Wayanad in Kerala and Nilgiris in Tamil Nadu to convert into organic manure.

For ten years now the panchayat has been issuing competitive tenders for exclusive rights to collect dung from nine public locations for six months at a time. Today a single tender fetches the panchayat close to Rs 70,000 every six months. This has been giving the panchayat every year around Rs 1.40 lakh for the last three years.

Once a tender is awarded, the winner employs 65 dung collectors from among the villagers. They collect dung from public places like roads, open spaces, government revenue land and grasslands where the cattle graze.

They also collect dung from farmers with small herds of cattle by paying them personally once a week. Every morning the dung collected is transported in trucks to the coffee-growing districts.

"This revenue has helped us manage various services. So far, we have built six mini-water supply schemes, an underground drainage system, three community halls and given scholarships to local students, all at a cost of Rs 13 lakh," said Hangala panchayat chairperson Renuka Prasad.

This revenue creates an invaluable steady cash flow with which the panchayat can plan public expenditure as the state government grant of Rs 3 lakh per annum is released in dribs and drabs.

In the initial years, tenders were awarded for as low as Rs 20,000. The value increased gradually as demand among coffee growers for organic manure rose over time. The three coffee-growing districts of Kodagu, Wayanad and Nilgiris have a 54 per cent share in India's coffee production.

"Approximately 39 tonnes of dung (wet weight) is produced by the village livestock everyday. Now, we intend to set aside a portion of the dung for local use. We are planning several biogas plants for supplying piped cooking gas to our households. We are also seeing if we can power street lighting with biogas," she revealed.

The farmers who sell dung separately work through self-help groups (SHGs). While the panchayat issues tenders to collect dung from public places, local SHGs trade in dung collected from members' private land. "The SHGs earn at least Rs 16,500 every fortnight for one truck load (six tonnes) of dung," said Renuka Prasad.

Today, there are dung agents who broker deals between buyers and SHGs, and people who load dung onto trucks. Hangala has 15 dung agents and at least 200 dung loaders. Dung agents earn a brokerage of Rs 150 per day while the dung loaders are paid Rs 75-80 per day.

The dung trade is changing the local village economy. "The cash has given access to a lot of things that were previously beyond the reach of the subsistence farmers. For instance, villagers now prefer to raise commercial crops like castor, cotton and sunflower which require greater investment," said M D Madhusudan of Nature Conservation Foundation, an NGO.

This success of Hangala panchayat has prompted the Karnataka government to cite it as an example for others at various forums for improving the performance of panchayati raj institutions.