Chandigarh: A team of researchers from Chandigarh has succeeded in converting waste pollutants like human hair and bird feathers into organic fertilisers, and has now been granted two separate patents for developing technologies that address the world's major environmental problem.

The team comprises R.K. Kohli, senior professor at the Department of Environment and Science, Panjab University (PU), Parikshit Bansal from National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), and Jatinder Arora of Punjab State Council for Science and Technology.

"We applied for patents in 2004 through the Technology and Information Forecasting Council under the ministry of science and technology and received the confirmation in June 2008. Our findings will solve the major global environmental pollution problems caused by mammalian hair or bird feather and an abhorrent weed called parthenium hysterophorus (congress grass)," Kohli told IANS.

Disposal of human hair poses a major problem since it takes several years. If burnt, it releases toxic elements into the air, which can cause severe allergies. When dumped into rivers, it contaminates drinking water supplies, Kohli pointed out.

Kohli along with Bansal developed an eco-friendly technology to convert human hair and feathers into an organic fertiliser using earthworms.

The fertiliser is an effective, odourless, disease free, soil fertility agent that will also enhance plant growth, Kohli added.

The two researchers along with Arora developed another technology to solve the problem of pollution caused by congress grass.

Kohli said the new formula would convert congress grass into useful organic manure with the help of earthworms. IANS