Jaipur: Elephant Poo Paper-Making Workshop with Tour Guide

Yes, really — and it is a serious industry

Elephant dung paper is made in and around Jaipur at commercial scale, and it exists for a reason that makes sense the moment you hear it. An elephant eats around 150 kg of vegetation a day and digests very little of it, so what comes out is largely raw plant fibre — exactly what paper needs.

It is washed, boiled, pulped and pressed. There is no smell in the finished product, and there is very little in the process after the first wash, which people never believe until they are standing in it.

The workshops buy the raw material from elephant owners, which gives those owners an income that does not involve the animal working. That is the part that makes this more than a novelty.

What you do

A briefing first on the process and on why anyone started doing this.

Then the work: washing the fibre, boiling it, pulping it, and then the sheet-forming itself — pulp suspended in a vat, a mesh screen dipped and lifted flat, water drained, and the wet sheet couched onto felt and pressed.

You make your own sheets. Natural dyes go in at the pulp stage if you want colour, and petals or leaves can be pressed into the sheet while it is wet.

The result is thick, textured, slightly flecked paper — the kind sold as handmade stationery, notebooks and cards across Rajasthan.

You take it home

Your sheets, once they have dried. The workshop will have finished stock as well if you want a notebook that somebody else made properly.

Practical

Around five hours including the guide and the workshop.

Wear clothes you do not mind marking. You will have your hands in pulp and water for a good part of it, and aprons only do so much.

All materials are included. The workshop is a working unit rather than a visitor centre, which is the appeal.