125 Years Old Eco Friendly Water Flour Mill in Haryana

In olden days, Indians had a habit of grinding wheat manually using two stones, which has now been replaced by an electric motor powered flour mill which is also called PAN-CHAKKI, meaning a flour mill powered by water.

This concept is also being used in the production of micro hydel projects wherein adequate electricity is produced for an entire village which need not depend on any external sources of electricity. There are very few water flour mills present in India, one of them is a mill which is 125 years old. It is located at Kaithal district of Haryana in India and was built during 1890.

The characteristic feature of this mill is its self-cooling feature. Another feature is that the wheat flour does not get heated after the processing, which is not possible in the electric operated flour mills. India is said to be the oldest country for the Water Flour Mill in the world. The mill is located at a close proximity to a canal and the water flows through the canal and into the mill. There are 5 mills which are more than 100 years old in and around this location. The capacity of the mill to grind flour is about 100 kg per hour.

This mill is under the Department of Irrigation and is a self-service business model. Anyone can use the mill by putting the wheat himself and by taking out the flour from the mill. The cost of the same is thirty rupees a bag. Every method of producing usable energy has an environmental impact, but the traditional method of energy production which includes the burning of fossil fuels and nuclear, has much more negative impact as compared to others. Fossil fuels release carbon, sulphur and nitrogen compounds into the atmosphere that causes climatic changes which are detrimental to human habitation.

It is time we adopt sources of renewable energy in our daily needs and a good source of the same is hydro power which uses the kinetic energy of water to run various useful equipment.