Soon, mule dung to be used as fodder fuel in Uttarakhand

DHERADUN: Rudraprayag district administration has roped in energy experts for using mule dung as a fodder fuel in Kedarnath region where over 6,000 mules are used to ferry pilgrims during the Char Dham Yatra season.
Rudraprayag DM, Mangesh Ghildiyal said, “Handling the mule dung is one of the biggest civic challenges for us in Kedarnath. With the help of experts, a prototype set up is being made in Kedarnath area where the dung would be collected and made into fodder fuel.”
The district administration has identified a few spots where the waste would be collected before being taken to a specialized plan for mixing with forest fodder.
To deal with the mule dung problem during the season, the district administration has deployed people to clean the tracks starting from Gauri Kund to Kedarnath. “Collecting and disposing of the waste is a problem and I hope the innovative method would help in dealing with this,” said Ghildiyal. The DM added that a team of energy experts have submitted the proposal to set up the plant. The mule owners would be given special dung bags that would be taken to the plant. “If everything goes well, we would be using the mule dung cakes for boiling water in fireplaces during winter,” the DM said.