Fuelwood Studies in India: Myths and Reality

Fuelwood is defined as ‘wood in rough form obtained from trunks and branches of trees to be used for fuel purposes such as cooking, heating or power generation’. This 2002 report summarizes and reviews seven national level, 10 state level and five local level studies to provide a critical review of studies on fuelwood, wood balance, and household energy in India from the preceding two decades. It was authored by the former Director General of the Forest Survey of India, Devendra Pandey. One of its objectives was to analyse the extent to which fuelwood collection was responsible for the degradation of forests in the country.According to the report, traditional fuels (fuelwood, crop residue, and dung cake) accounted for around 90 per cent of domestic energy use in rural areas at the beginning of this century. Fuelwood alone accounted for 60 per cent of total fuel. In urban areas, from 1983 to 2002, overall consumption of tradition fuel declined from 49 per cent to 24 per cent. This was due to the increasing availability of commercial fuels alternatives like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), kerosene and electricity. Since most studies at the time relied on consumption statistics with a weak focus on supply and source, sustainability of fuelwood and actual contribution of sources are not well understood, the report states. It analyses fuelwood consumption in relation to availability and accessibility of resources, effect of climate as well as the extent of urbanisation and income level of consumers. The 108-page report is divided into nine sections: Introduction (Section 1); India’s Energy Use Dynamics (Section 2); Review of Sampling Designs and Methodologies for Assessing Consumption (Section 3); Results of Fuelwood Studies: Review and Analysis (Section 4); Trends (Section 5); Identification of Fuelwood Hot Spots (Section 6); Policy Responses to Fuelwood Issues (Section 7); An Approach to Make Fuelwood Statistics Reliable (Section 8); and Conclusions and Recommendations (Section 9).