Workshop for producing eco-friendly colours held

kolkata: The Sidho Kanho Birsha University (SKBU) organised an eco-friendly colour manufacturing workshop for socio-economic upliftment of tribal community, ahead of Doljatra.

About 32 tribal women from the villages of four blocks namely Arsha, Baghmundi, Joypur and Puncha of Purulia participated in the programme.

The herbal colours were extracted from sugerbeet, turmeric, butea flower (Palas), neem and seeds of lipstick tree.

The ingredients were crushed and boiled in water separately, filtered, mixed with talcum powder and little bit of arrowroot and dried in hot air oven. Materials can be dried in shade on a polythene sheet.

Dried materials crushed, sieved and mixed with lemon grass oil as well as jasmine essence for fragrance.

The essence were also produced in the University by distillation process.

The workshop was organised by DST STI hub, a project under DST (SEED Division) of the union government.

"The main objectives of this workshop includes protection of the environment from chemical hazards, avoidance of health hazards like contact dermatitis and allergy and economic upliftment of tribal communities," Professor Subrata Raha, co-ordinator of the programme said.