People And Their Problems

New Delhi, 9 February 2007

Animal Energy System

IMPROVED BULLOCK CART ON THE MOVE

By Radhakrishna Rao

Although India is going in a big way for IT and communications, it will have to depend on draught animal power for the next 50 years at least for ploughing and carting, says  Prof. N.S. Ramaswamy, founder of the Bangalore-based CARTMAN (Centre for Action, Research and Technology for Man, Animal and Nature) and a well-known architect of a number of improved bullock cart verities.

Significantly, in India about two-third of the land under crops are ploughed by bullocks and about 15 million carts in the country are drawn by bullocks. Going specific, Ramaswamy says that draught animals provide about 50 billion units of energy valued at Rs.5,00,000 million every year.  In addition, they help save about 6 million tonnes of fossil fuel valued at Rs.12,000 million per year.

While serving as the Director of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Bangalore, Prof. Ramaswamy had played a key role in designing a variety of improved bullock cart types suited to the needs of a variety of terrain conditions in Karnataka. Moreover, he has all along been driving home the point that India needs to cover substantial ground before it makes use of the  draught animal power in an efficient and integrated manner.

Against this backdrop, the CARTMAN initiated research and development projects and social science research, aimed at modernizing and improving the animal energy systems. Sources in the CARTMAN say that traditional bullock carts have been improved by introducing pneumatic tyres, steel wheels, smooth roller bearings as well as steel platforms. These improvements have contributed to the increased carrying capacity of the carts with lesser energy inputs by the animals.

As part of a programme, funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) for the last two years, researchers from the CARTMAN have conducted surveys among small and marginal farmers spread to ten villages in Karnataka. These surveys have helped get inputs/hints for the improvement of bullock carts. In fact, the feedback from this programme has gone to show that the biggest problem faced by the farmer was the bulky size and massive weight of the cart. And as such, the traditional carts were redesigned with rubber bonded sheet wheels. 

As pointed out by the CARTMAN, “smaller rubber tyres cannot be used in the villages because they get stuck into the slush.  So we had to combine the advantages of the traditional carts with our innovations”. In order to minimize the cost of improved bullock carts, rubber rim extracted from old tractor tyres are being fitted on into the steel wheels. This innovative design makes the bullock cart good enough for various terrains. This cart has been designed to take a load of two tonnes.

Significantly, in the conventional bullock cart---used in most parts of the country which has two wheels---a major part of the load is borne by the d raft animals on their shoulders and the neck and the harnessing system at present makes it difficult to negotiate sharp bends of turns in the road. This is known to cause galls on the neck of the bullocks which leads to the lowered efficiency of the animals due to their depleting stamina.

The CARTMAN’s new design is specifically engineered to overcome the deficiencies of the conventional carts by having an additional wheel to balance the load. Further this increased efficiency cart has a tilting mechanism which is based on the rope and pulley system. This rope and pulley system located alongside the cart driver can be used to control and manipulate the cart.

Of course, many research organizations in the country have been active in designing and developing improved bullock carts suited to the needs of rural India.  In keeping with this trend, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) has given a “steel look” to this quintessential symbol of rural India.  Sources in the RINL says that while traditional cart made of wood can carry just ten quintals, improved cart made of steel an haul a weight of upto two tonnes.  Similarly, the steely avatar of the bullock cart has a lifespan of two decades as against five years for the conventional wooden cart. Moreover, the steel bullock cart can easily be dismantled.

Basically, this improved bullock cart is made of square or rectangular steel sections and have inbuilt features that make for greater stability with low centre of gravity. In fact, this feature makes the cart specially suited for operations on ill maintained rural roads. For many a time, traditional bullock carts traversing the poor village roads topple, causing injury to the bullocks.  And this makes for a loss of time and money for the farmers.

The RINL improved steel cart weighing about half of the traditional carts, help reduce the load on the animals by a substantial extent. Currently two types of improved carts are available--- one with a carrying capacity of two tonnes and the other with a carrying capacity of 0.5 tonne. The cost of these carts vary between Rs.12,000 and Rs.15,000. Indeed, these carts are not only a great boon to the farmers but also to the bullocks.

All said and done, the light weight does not mean the steel cart will carry less load since the welded does not mean he steel cart will carry less load since he welded platform has an appreciable high load carrying capacity. Only the yoke is made of wood since the steel would be abrasive on the bullocks’ shoulder. Since it runs on wheels mounted on roller bearings, the cart can be pulled very easily.

Load brakes for both the wheels are provided so that the cart be stopped instantly” observes, Dr. R.K.P. Singh, Director General of Institute of Steel Development and Growth (INSDAG) which has been involved closely with the designing of the improved bullock carts. “Ultimately, we want these carts to be made locally at the village level and are trying up with various agencies to train the village youths”, says Dr. Singh.

Interestingly, the cart is flexible enough to allow modifications, including the replacement of wheels by the tyres. These improved bullock carts weigh just 240 kg as against the wooden cart which weigh 650-kg. These carts have already become popular with farmers in the interiors of West Bengal and Chhattisgarh.

For the first time, brakes have been introduced into these carts for controlling the movement of the cart, especially in slippery and difficult to negotiate terrain of the rural roads.  More importantly, the wheels of these improved carts fitted with taper roller bearings makes for smoother, faster and easier movements.---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)