GAUMAYA began as a small practice behind a family home near Narnaul, in southern Haryana. It has grown slowly — on purpose — and now sources from four partner shelters across the state.
The gaushalas
A gaushala is a welfare shelter for indigenous cows who have been retired, rescued, or are otherwise outside the dairy system. Ours are scattered across Haryana — the oldest established in 1952, the youngest in 2011.
We partner with four. No synthetic feed. No growth hormones. The cows are not milked for production. They live out their lives in quiet, and in doing so they produce something that has fed the soil of this region for as long as anyone can remember.
The practice
Every six weeks, dung is collected from our partner shelters. It is rested in shaded beds for fourteen days, then bedded with Eisenia fetida earthworms. Sixty to seventy days later, what emerges is dark, crumbly, and alive.
It is then sorted by hand, tested by lab, and packed in kraft paper with a jute tie. A QR code on every bag traces back to the shelter it came from.
Why we do this
Industrial fertilisers feed plants. They do not build soil. Over time, they leave beds tired and depleted — the grower reaches for more, and the cycle deepens.
Vermicompost is the oldest answer to that problem, and the quietest. It works slowly. It asks for patience. And when it is made with care — measured, aged, not rushed — it returns a handful of something that will feed a plant and the generation of plants that come after it.
That is the practice we are trying to scale, carefully, without compromise.
Where we are now
The first batch is curing now and ships in July 2026. We are taking our time, because a product like this deserves it.
If you would like to know when the first batch is ready, leave your email on the homepage. We will write.
— The GAUMAYA Team
Haryana, India