An “opaque” research project on reducing room temperature by using cow dung on the walls of a college under Delhi University has drawn sharp reactions from students and faculty.
Lakshmibai College principal Pratyush Vatsala last week took the initiative to coat the walls of two classrooms with cow dung as part of the “Study of Heat Stress Control By Using Traditional Indian Knowledge”. She circulated a video of the smearing on the college teachers’ WhatsApp group.
On Tuesday, the president of the Delhi University Students’ Union, Ronak Khatri, went to the principal’s cabin with a box full of cow dung to perform the same experiment as a mark of protest. Vatsala was, however, not in office. Vice-principal Lata Sharma objected to caking the wall with cow dung.
Sharma asked Khatri to speak to project researchers Shwetank Pandey and Mukesh Mahato from the department of environmental studies. Khatri, however, pasted cow dung on the walls after a brief argument.
Mahato on Wednesday did not wish to comment on the project. “You please talk to our principal ma’am. Ma’am’s video has gone viral. She will speak,” he said.
Calls to Vatsala and Pandey for questions on the project did not yield a response. However, two faculty members of the college said the project was never discussed with the staff council, the appropriate body for deciding a research subject.
“If it was a research project, it should have been discussed in the staff council. There was no discussion. It is not clear who is funding this project. It is an opaque project entirely,” a faculty member said.
The college has a few rooms in which the temperature is usually high. The college set up a goshala (cow shelter) in 2020. There are three cows and the dung was brought from the goshala.
“It seems it was the idea of the principal to coat the room with cow dung to appease some RSS leaders to get (re)appointed as principal or in some other post. But she dragged two faculty members into this and called it a research project as an afterthought as she had been criticised for her actions,” the teacher said.
