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Household energy and common lands in rural Haryana, India

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 October 2009

Mohammad Hashim Qureshi  and
Suresh Kumar
Mohammad Hashim Qureshi*
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 110067, India
Suresh Kumar
Affiliation:
Centre for the Study of Regional Development, School of Social Sciences, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi – 110067, India
*
* M.H. Qureshi Tel: +91 11 6168432 Fax: +91 11 6165886 e-mail: mhq@jnuniv.ernet.in
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Summary

Rural people in most of the developing countries are facing an acute shortage of domestic fuel which has led to many socio-economic and environmental problems. In an attempt to examine the nature and extent of the household energy problem, and to suggest certain measures to alleviate it, 432 sample households from eight sample villages in Haryana, north-western India, were surveyed using structured questionnaires during 1995. We find that there has been widespread switching over to low quality fuels (crop residue and dung cake), more time and effort are now spent in fetching fuelwood, biomass fuels have been monetized, and that severe degradation of vegetation cover has occurred. All these changes reflect the acute shortage of household energy in rural areas of Haryana State. It has almost become a crisis, particularly in the Eastern Haryana Region and in poor households. The common lands still provide a significant proportion of household fuel, especially to landless and marginal farming households. Hence, energy plantation on common lands is an immediate, feasible and sustainable solution to the rural energy problem. There is also an urgent need to prevent the wastage of energy by increasing end-use efficiency.

Keywords

household energycommon landsbiomass fuelsfuel-wooddung cakecrop residue
Type
Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 23 , Issue 4 , December 1996 , pp. 343 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1996

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