Energy Bulletin asked Indian based Peak Oil activist Robin Abraham to report on his activities in the world’s second most populous country. Robin discusses why gaushalas – organic agriculture promoting cow sheds with religious significance – might just be the conduit for wider Peak Oil awareness and local solutions.
India is a religious country as anyone who visits this country would attest. A message packaged in religion tends to get greater receptivity here. As India along with the world is on an economic train wreck due to Peak Oil, there is an urgent need to get the message of sustainability to the masses. Religion is the only vehicle which can achieve this aim in India.
India has the problem of managing its huge population along with poverty which makes the peak oil challenge very daunting here. Most observers of Peak Oil in West tend to dismiss the Third World’s chances of survival. I take a bit of a dissident view in this. Vast multitudes of the population live off the land by farming and thus the knowledge and skill needed for basic survival is still in abundance.
The cow has traditionally has been an object of reverence in India. The reason is not very difficult to see. The cow was the center of economic activity in Ancient India until close to present times. Bullocks tilled the land, cow dung fertilized the fields, milk was a nutrition source. Many religious practices developed over the ages which gave the cow a special place.
The cow still provides these services to many Indians, however over the years, the cow’s economic importance has diminished due to expanding industrialisation. In order to save the cow, the practice of building gaushalas (cowsheds, often associated with temples) started to take root in India. Rich businessmen, especially those of the Jain and Marwadi communities, donate generously towards gaushalas. Thus it seemed that an obvious way to move forward was to use the gaushala as a medium to start work on mitigation of Peak Oil.
During the past one month or so I have been visiting many gaushalas and talking to the people who run them. Most gaushalas make vermi-compost from manure and sell it to farmers, and encourage them to use organic farming methods and move away from artificial fertilisers.
I have been trying to convince the gaushala management to use alternative energy technology for demonstration to the villagers.
The idea is to maximally use Sun’s energy that falls on the ground for economic activity. Sunlight is trapped by the plants and plant is eaten by the animals. So the energy flows like this
Sunlight —–> Plants —–> animals
The idea is to use the energy flow in the most efficient way as possible.
1) Animal muscular energy can be tapped to meet rural needs. Bullock powered machines like Bullock powered water pump, Bullock powered agro-machines etc. would be placed in the gaushala.
www.goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/newsclip/story/75_0_2_0_C/
2) Biogas plants: Methane biogas can be produced through digestion of cow dung. The process also ages the dung producing a ready fertilizer. One of the problems faced by biogas plant users is that there are no machines which run on pure biogas. Happily that situation is changing and companies are coming forward with machines which run on pure biogas.
3) Biodiesel: Over three hundred species of trees exist which give oil and they are an ideal solution for rural energy needs. India has enough wastelands to replace its current petroleum import.
www.goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/discovery/honge.html
4) Biomass gasification.: We will use the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) technology for turning biomass into combustible gas.
www.goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/discovery/cgpl.html
The concept which I have in mind is to use the gaushalas as a base for alternative energy propagation. We will create teams of the youth who will spread the message of alternative energy to rural people.
Along with cow protection, tree protection is very high on the agenda. A tribe in Rajasthan called the Bishnois are famous for their eco-friendly ethos. Such ethos will be striven to be revived. Bishnois are probably the only tribe in the world who have a history of martyrdom for trees when 363 Bishnoi women gave up their lives trying to protect trees from being felled.
www.goodnewsindia.com/Pages/content/traditions/bishnoi.html
We will organize tree festivals in villages with which we hope to revive the spirit of the Bishnos all over India. These are the hopes and dreams that I have. I feel inspired by the dedication of the RSS pracharaks and am enthused by the help that they are giving me to realize my dreams.
