New Delhi: Faced with a possibility of reduced leather production in the wake of the beef ban in some states, scientists have come up with a novel method of manufacturing a fabric with chicken legs.
The quality will be similar to the fabric made from baby alligators. "With the beef ban in some states and availability of green technology, we have told the Central Leather Research Institute (CLRI) to come up with synthetic leather or an alternative that can address the demand," CSIR Director General Girish Sahni said, during a media interaction here.
The CLRI, a laboratory under the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), has come up with a technology of making leather from chicken legs with its quality similar to the fabric made from baby alligators.
The CLRI is now faced with the aspect of commericialising the technology as it is primarily a research institute. At the same time, some scientists are also of the view that the ban on slaughtering of cows is unlikely to have an effect on leather production because there are other sources like sheep, goat and buffalo.
"Beef ban may not affect the production of leather as there are other sources as well like the buffalo, sheep, goat because it is directly linked to the meat sector. We also import leather from countries like New Zealand.
"But then they are not the tanners, so this technology needs to be exploited commercially. At the parallel level, we also made products out of this leather. But it can act as an embellishment, or at the maximum it can be used to prepare small leather bags," B Chandrasekaran, Director of the CLRI, said.
