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Alappuzha Municipality in Kerala recently got flak for its suggestion to use an ayurvedic powder for fumigation to contain COVID-19 spread. Now, popular science activists and Ayurveda practitioners are engaged in a debate over the efficacy and scientific validity of that powder even as one more grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram district has conducted a similar event.
The civic body in Alappuzha had urged all the 50,000 households in its jurisdiction to observe ‘Dhooma Sandhya’ at 6.30 p.m. on May 8 by fumigating their surroundings with the smoke generated from burning ‘aparajita dhooma choornam’. The municipality had earlier distributed packets of the powder to residents for free as part of COVID-19 prevention. “Aparajitha dhooma choornam could prevent all airborne infectious diseases. It is antibacterial and antiviral,” a notice had said. The Malayinkeezhu grama panchayat in Thiruvananthapuram too followed suit a couple of days later.