From the archive record
The use of cow patties, cow shit cakes, or cow-dung cakes, are a rural tradition in India. They are a sustainable fuel that form part and parcel of the traditional way of village life in India. Dung Cakes, made from the by-products of animal husbandry, are traditionally used as fuel in India for making food in a domestic hearth called a Chulha. They are made by hand by village women and are traditionally made from cow or buffalo dung. One dung cake of an average gives 2100 KJ worth of energy. It is still used within the Punjab region and some parts of India. Nowadays it is available for trade.Cow dung, which is usually a pale red colour, (usually combined with soiled bedding and urine) is often used as manure (agricultural fertilizer). If not recycled into the soil by species such as earth