Herbal ‘gulal’ finds many takers

Gaya: The Holi from flowers at Braj is world famous. Now, the

Gaya

forest division is providing an opportunity to the locals to play Holi with by-product of flowers. The waste of flowers offered by devotees at Vishnupad temple and the world-heritage

Mahabodhi Mahavihara

at Bodh Gaya are being used to prepare herbal gulal. Thanks to the initiative of divisional forest officer (DFO) Abhishek Kumar, the Dhungeshwari forest committee has engaged local women in production of the herbal gulal at Dhungeshwari, around 8km east of Bodh Gaya. The flower waste by-product is being marketed in the name of ‘

Aranyak

’, the brand of Gaya forest division. “The production of herbal colour from floral wastes started last year as an ancillary unit to hand-rolled, charcoal free incense sticks unit run by the local forest villagers. The Dungeshwari Van Samiti is planning to expand the basket of products using floral wastes like compost and pigments,” DFO Abhishek said.Herbal gulal is available in all the parks of Gaya forest division, Patna zoo and

Khadi Mall

, Patna.Leader of the team engaged in production of Aranyak, Shiv Kumar Malviya, said, “The herbal gulal is available in three colours – pink, green and yellow. It is being made available to the retailers for sale in the market in 100-gram packets. We have also sent the Aranyak brand to Mumbai and Delhi in small quantity. At least 20 local women are engaged in the work.”