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FUEL WOOD: A CONVENTIONAL SOURCE OF ENERGY IN MOUNTAINS OF THE GARHWALHIMALAYA

Munesh Kumar*, C. M. Sharma** and G.S. Rajwar****Department of Forestry, HNB, Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand India,**Department of Botany, HNB, Garhwal University, Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand, India

***Department of Botany, Govt. Post Graduate College, Rishikesh, Uttarakhand, India(E-mail: muneshmzu@yahoo.com)

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTIONIn Asia, the forest in the Himalayan region

is considered to be among the most depleted

(Tucker, 1987; Schickhoff, 1995). Deforestationin the Himalaya region is also often attributed toincreasing human population (Eckholm, 1975,Sterling, 1976; Lall and Moddies, 1981; Myers,1986). Ives and Messerli (1989) called thisexplanation overly simplistic and have namedit the Theory of Himalayan EnvironmentDegradation

Fuel wood is one of the important sourcesof energy in the developing and underdeveloped countries. It constitutes a vital inputfor all productive economic activities andmeeting the basic energy requirement in bothdomestic and traditional industrial sector in the

rural areas (Vimal and Tyagi, 1984). Fuel woodalone accounts for about 60% of the total fuel inthe rural areas (Pandey, 2002).

In the mountainous regions of theUtarakhand hills of Garhwal Himalaya, peopleare fully dependent on forest resourcesespecially for food, fodder, fuel, shelter andother daily needs. With increasing altitude,different compositions of forests are found, andso different plant species are used in differentaltitudes for fuel in the household sector. In the

household sectors of mountain areas fuel woodis required for cooking, lighting, boiling of water,and space heating (Bhatt and Todaria, 1990).

Due to daily use of fuel wood for energy fromthe forests and irrational uses of naturalresources; fuel wood has become acutelyscarce while there is substantial increase inhuman and bovine population on the one hand,and decreasing forest areas on the other. Thishas resulted in all kinds of plant species beingused as fuel wood (Badoni and Bhatt, 1980).Although many studies on fuel woodconsumption have been carried out in the hillsof Utarakhand, but the study in respect ofvillage dependence on different forest typesalong altitudinal gradient and the rate of fuelwood consumption pattern has not been

studied so far in Utarakhand. Therefore, thisstudy assessed the actual fuel woodconsumption pattern by the villagers withincreasing altitude and availability of differentforest composition.

Study areaThe study was carried out in six rural

villages, selecting two each in tropical (GangaBhogpur and Kunow), sub-tropical (Bhainswaraand Ghargoan) and temperate (Dhaulana and

The use of fuel wood in the Garhwal Himalaya as a primary source of energy for domesticpurposes is causing severe deforestation in the Garhwal Himalaya. The fuel wood consumptionpatterns have been studied in six villages selected two each in tropical (Ganga Bhogpur andKunow), sub-tropical (Bhainswara and Ghargaon) and temperate (Dhaulana and Chunnikhal)regions under various ecological and socio-economic conditions. The highest value of total fuelwood consumption for various purposes was observed for the village Ganga Bhogpur (907.20 kgcapita

-1yr

-1) in the tropical region, whereas, it was lowest for the village Ghargoan (586.8 kg

capita-1

yr-1

) in the sub-tropical region. The labour energy expenditure for fuel wood collectionwas maximum in the village Dhaulana (53516.30 MJ person

-1yr

-1) in temperate region, which

was due to the distance from the forest recorded as 1.0 km and was higher compared to others.The terrain which has a steep slope consumed maximum time for fuel wood collection while,minimum was in village Ganga Bhogpur (32412.00 MJ capita

-1yr

-1) in the tropical region, which

could be due to nearness of the village to the forest (0.40 km) and was also more convenient forvillagers to go for fuel wood collection. Fuel wood consumption also fluctuated with the seasonas reported to be higher in winter>rainy>summer. The tree and shrub species preferred by theinhabitants for fuel wood were Holoptelea integrifolia, Anogeissus latifoliaand Lantana camaraintropical region; Anogeissus latifolia, Acacia catechuand Carissa spinarumin sub-tropical region;and Quercus leucotrichophora, Myrica esculentaand Pyracantha crenulatain temperate region.

Key words: Fuel wood consumption, altitudes, Garhwal Himalaya, season.

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Chunnikhal) regions to compare the studyamong the villages in different altitudes, andbetween the villages in same altitudes of aregion. The sites were located at 30

06

N

latitude, 780

24E longitude and 300-400 m asl

in tropical region, 300

29N latitude, 78

024

E

longitude and 900 to 1300 m asl in sub-tropicalregion, and at 30

022

N latitude, 78

023

E

longitude and 1900-2400 m asl in temperateregion of the Garhwal Himalaya. The climate ismonsoonic and can be divisible into threedifferent seasons, i.e., rainy (mid June-September), winter (October-February) andsummer (Marchmid June). The forests of thestudy sites were dominated by Holopteleaintegrifolia-mixed forests (tropical regions),Anogeissus latifolia-mixed forests (subtropical)and the temperate forests were dominated byQuercus leucotrichophora-mixed type. Thedetailed structure of the village is presented inLocation map (Plate-1).

METHODOLOGYA preliminary reconnaissance was

conducted at three study sites to count thenumber of families and members in eachhousehold (Table-1). The interviews wereconducted and the information was collectedfrom the older and mature villagers to getactual data of the village. Sometimes theinformation was also collected in the forestswhen the villagers were collecting fuel wood, inlocal dialect (Garhwali) to get properinformation. Households in each village werecategorized into small, medium and large typesfor studying the fuel wood consumed by each

sample household in each village. Theobservations were made in each samplehousehold to quantify the fuel wood used bythe villagers for various purposes i.e., cooking,heating, boiling of water, and protection ofcrops from wild animals. To know the dailyconsumption of fuel wood the weight surveymethod over a period of 24 hours was adopted.Initially, a wood lot of known weight was givento household and was requested to burn woodonly from the given stack. After 24 hours theamount of residual wood of each identifiedspecies was deducted from the original weightin order to obtain the actual consumption per

day. The time spent for fuel wood collection byeach sample household of each village wasmeasured when the number of the householdswent to the forest for fuel wood collection, andreturned back with fuel wood load. Thedistance traveled from village to forest andback with fuel wood load, and the time spent forthe fuel wood collection by villagers was crosschecked by repeated visit to the forestspersonally along with villagers. The time andlabour spent by the villager for fuel wood

collection was measured in hours andconverted into energy (MJ) method based onGopalan et al. (1978). Based on the work ofMitchell (1979), 1 kg of fuel wood was assumedto be 16.8 MJ kg

-1oven-dry weight. Total fuel

wood energy consumed was subsequentlyapportioned to each activity as per Leach,(1976). The indices of 0.418 MJ for sedentary,

0.488 for moderate and 0.679 for heavy workwere used for an adult male and 0.331 MJ forsedentary and 0.383 MJ and for moderate and0.523 MJ for heavy work for an adult female.However, for heavy work by children of 9-12years of age, a standard value of 0.412 MJ wasused per hour energy basis (Maikhuri, 1991).

Fuel wood consumption per capita per daywas calculated on the basis of total fuel woodconsumed by a family, divided by the totalnumber of family members as described byGupta et al. (1997) as: F = TFc / TFm, where,F= Per day per capita fuel wood consumption,TFc= Total fuel consumption by sample

household, and TFm= Total number of familymembers.

RESULTSThe quantities in kg and energy values

expressed in MJ of tree species used for fuelwood in the selected villages of differentaltitudes are given in Table-2. In the villages ofTemperate region (Dhaulana and Chunnikhal),the dominant species used for fuel wood wasQuercus leucotrichophora, however, the othertree species used as fuel wood were Myricaesculenta, Rhododendron arboreum andshrubs Pyracantha crenulata, Symplocos

chinensis, Berberis asiatica, Cotoneasterbacillaris. Among the species, Symplocoschinensis was not used in the villageChunnikhal. In Bhainswara and Ghargaonvillages of sub-tropical region the dominant treespecies was Anogeissus latifolia which wasused on top priority basis by the villagers, whileother tree species taken as fuel wood wereAegle marmelos, Acacia catechu, Lanneacoromandelica, Ougeinia oojeinensis, and theshrub species used were Carissa spinarum,Rhus parviflora, Woodfordia fructicosa, Lantanacamara (shrubs). Among the villages Aeglemarmelos was not used for fuel wood in the

village Bhainswara and Ougeinia oojeinensisinGhargaon. The common fuel wood species ofGanga Bhogpur and Kunow villages of thetropical region were Holoptelea integrifolia(thedominant utilized species), Dalbergia sissoo,Aegle marmelos, Acacia catechu, Anogeissuslatifolia, A. pendula, Zizyphus mauritiana andMallotus philippensis. Similarly, among thevillages Murraya koenigii was not reported tobe used as fuel wood in Kunow. The woodused for different purposes in various villages is

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exhibited in Fig-1. In each village or altitudecooking comprised the major proportion of fuelwood consumption. Other purposes of fuelwood consumed were room heating (winter),boiling of water (bathing + animals), and intropical villages only for the protection ofagricultural crops because of their location inthe vicinity of the Rajaji National Park which is

famous for various kinds of wildlife like elephantwhich cause huge losses to agriculturalproduction during nights.

The size of the household in differentseasons directly influenced the fuel woodconsumption. The fuel wood consumption wasobserved highest in winter season followed byrainy and summer seasons. Seasonal fuelwood consumption quantities ranged from 1.71kg to 2.70 kg capita

-1day

-1for the temperate

villages, 1.50 kg to 1.84 kg capita-1

day-1

for thesub-tropical villages and 2.30 kg to 2.76 kgcapita

-1day

-1for the villages of tropical region

(Fig-2). The labour energy expenditure was

used for fuel wood collection as shown in Fig-3.The maximum value of total labour energyexpended by the villagers of tropical region was34795.45 MJ capita

-1year

-1for the village

Kunow followed by Ganga Bhogpur amountingto 32412.00 capita

-1yr

-1. In the sub-tropical

region the highest value was for the villageBhainswara (37397.90 MJ capita

-1year

-1)and

the lowest (36708.05 MJ capita-1

year-1

) forGhargoan. The total labour energy expenditureobserved for temperate region ranged between53516.30 MJ capita

-1yr

-1and 40073.00 MJ

capita-1

yr-1

for the villages Dhaulana andChunnikhal respectively. Among the villages,

Dhaulana (temperate region) has shownmaximum value of labour energy expenditurefor fuel wood collection due to its remotelocation and inaccessibility of the forest areas,while, the minimum for Ganga Bhogpur(tropical region) due to readily available meansof transports and easy accessibility to theforests.

DISCUSSIONThe present study has shown that seasonal

fuel wood consumption among six villages ofthree study regions ranged from 1.50 kg to 2.76kg capita

-1day

-1, which was within the range of

values of the consumption rate reported forGarhwal Himalaya (Ralhan et al., 1991).Pandey and Singh (1984) recorded an averagefuel consumption value of 1.49 kg capita

-1day

-1

for Central Himalaya. Reddy (1981) and Hegde(1984) reported fuel wood consumption valuesbetween 1.9 kg

to 2.2 kg capita

-1day

-1for

southern India. However, the values for Southand South East Asian countries ranged from1.7 kg to 2.7 kg capita

-1day

-1as reported by

Donoven (1981) and Wijesinghe (1984). The

values of the present study were quite lowerthan the firewood demand of tribal communities(Maikhuri, 1991) of the north eastern part ofHimalaya, (i.e., 3.1 kg to 10.4 kg capita

-1day

-1).

Many parts of the country where the forestresources have been reduced by the localinhabitants or now not sufficient, peoplecompensate the fuel wood energy requirements

by using alternate sources eg., crop residueand dung.

In the village sector of the GarhwalHimalaya, fuel wood is used for cooking (everyseason), lighting (in remote areas) and spaceheating (in winter season) purposes, while thecommercial use has so far not been reported.Negi et al. (1999) reported that fuel woodconsumption value for Garhwal Himalaya was438 kg person

-1year

-1at lower elevation (500-

1200 m asl) and at higher elevation it was547.5 kg person

-1year

-1. Barthwal (1987)

showed that the capita-1

fuel wood consumptionof 560 tonnes year

-1for Raath area in Garhwal

Himalaya, which is almost similar to the ruralareas of District Dehradun as 540 tonnes year

-

1(Sagar et al., 1985) but these values were

lower than the national average of 600 tonnesyear

-1(Srivastava, 1981).

In Garhwal Himalaya the scarcity offirewood is being felt and as a result of thismany families are now burning pine cones,scraped trees bark, and weeds such asCannabis sativa, Cassia occidentalis, Adhatodavasica, Colebrookia oppositifolia and Lantanacamara as the substitute of fuel wood.However, animal dung is continuously used asfertilizer for agricultural fields, except in minor

scale where it is used as mosquito repellent,especially in rainy season when farmersworked in agricultural field.

On the basis of fuel wood consumptionpatterns in the selected villages of the GarhwalHimalaya, it is important to point out that fuelwood consumption is creating serious problemof deforestation, and if the current trends of fuelwood consumption patterns continue unabated,there would be a scarcity of fuel wood supply innear future. Therefore, there is an urgent needto create awareness among the villagers, whoshould be insisted to use biogas, smokelesschulhas, LPG and other alternative sources of

fuel wood, which will reduce the pressure onforests. One important observation from thestudy sites is that the few households havingLPG connection were also using fuel woodequally from the forest as others. Their use ofLPG might be due to the competition for fuelwood collection among the villagers whichlimits available forest resources and threatensnearby areas within few years.

Presently, greater rate of felling of treesover the recovery rate is causing massive

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deterioration of forests due to over-exploitationincluding for fuel wood. The time and effortrequired to collect fuel wood has increasedmanifold, labour compares to earlier times tocollect fuel wood, resultant less attention isbeing paid to the production of food crop.Additionally, alterative fuels such as animaldung and crop residues may be utilized in

these areas later for fuels. Ultimately, the foodproduction of agricultural crop would bereduced considerably season by season andyear by year. The reduction in crop yields perunit area would also force cultivation of moreland to meet minimum food requirements,leading to more cleaning of indigenous forests,more potential soil erosion, and a trend towardsdesertification in this mountain region.

CONCLUSIONThe forests especially in the sub-tropical

region are highly degraded due to excessivelopping and cutting of trees for fuel wood and

other purposes, because in sub-tropical region,villages are situated within short distancescausing more depletion of forests. Similarly intemperate and tropical regions, the density oftrees was also reduced due to continuousexploitation of forests overafforestation/plantation. The main emphasis ofthe villagers to collect fuel wood was for energywhich is locally available and free of cost,however, the commercial fuels (LPG, biogassconstruction, kerosene and others) are eithernot properly available in the village/town areaor if found might be too expensive which arebeyond the reach of poor villagers. Therefore,

necessary afforestation and plantationprogrammes should be organized at villagelevel, group of village level, district level, statelevel and ultimately country level especially onthe barren land, panchyat land, common landand other areas of less vegetation which willfulfill the fuel requirement of the villagers.Peoples participation is needed to plan andexecute a successful program. It is also urgedthat this program cannot be successfully rununless an awareness program regarding thelosses of species and its impact on human lifeis taken up.

Usually in the sub-tropical and temperate

regions during present study it was reportedthat, the forest areas are shrinkingcontinuously. It was also reported that fewforest sites near the villages have been fencedby the villagers for personal use, where thetrees were growing with higher girth and heightcompared to other sites. The higher girth andheight of trees was due to the mild cutting oftrees for basic requirement. However, the otherforests were cut ruthlessly because they werenot under holding of the villagers. Therefore,

the good growth was observed due to propermanagement by the villagers. However, over-damage of forests by villagers is rampant inless forested areas. Thus, it is suggested thatthe government should take initiative for thedevelopment of forests jointly with the villagersby allotting demarcated forest area to eachvillage for ameliorating the conditions of forests

by its greening and to use the forest resourceby providing equal input in the forest in the formof plantation, protection of seed bearing treesfor regeneration and protection of newregeneration. It would be used for sustainableutilization of forest for long term output to thevillagers and for alleviating the nationaleconomy.

REFERENCESBadoni, A.K. and Bhatt, B.P. 1989. Aspectsand Prospects of Energy Plantation inHimalayan Wastelands: A case study ofGarhwal Himalaya. In: Papers presented in

National Workshop of Economics of EnergyPlantation on Wastelands 7-8 Aug., 1989.Rajasthan Agricultural University Bikaner, India.

Bathwal, P.S. 1987. Development andAlternative Source of Forest Energy in GarhwalHimalaya.

Bhatt, B.P. and Todaria, N. P. 1990. Fuelwood characteristics of some mountain treesand shrubs. Biomass21:233-238.

Donovan, D.G. 1981. Fuel wood: How MuchDo We Need? Institute of Current World affairs,Hanover, N.H. 23 pp.

Eckholm, E. 1975. The deterioration ofmountain environments. Science189:764-770.

Gopalan, G.B., Ramasastri, V. andBalasubraminiam, S.C. 1978. Nutritive Valueof Indian Foods. National Institute of Nutrition,Hyderabad, India, 204 pp.

Gupta, R.K. Pathania, M.S. and Gupta, T.1997. A study on fuel consumption pattern inHimachal Pradesh: A case study. RangeManagement & Agroforestry18(2): 181-188.

Hegde, M.S. 1984. Fuel problem in villages:Challenges and opportunities. Bulletin ofScienceJuly-August, pp. 8-13.

Ives, J.D.and Messerll, B. 1989. TheHimalayan Dilemma: Reconciling Developmentand Conservation. London and New York:Rutledge.

Lall, J.S. Moddie, A.D., (Editors.) 1981. TheHimalaya: Aspect of Change. Oxford UniversityPress, New Delhi.

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Leach, G. 1976. Energy and FoodProduction.IPC Science and Technology Press, Guildford,London, 137 pp.

Maikhuri, R. K. 1991. Fuel wood consumptionpattern of different tribal communities living inNorth-East India. Bioresources Technology35:291-296.

Mitchell, R. 1979. An Analysis of India Agro-Ecosystems. Interprint, New Delhi, India, 180pp.

Myers, N 1986. Environmental repercussionsof deforestation in the Himalayas. Journal ofWorld Forest Resource Management2:63-72

Negi, A.K. Bhatt, B.P. and Todaria, N.P.1999.Local population impacts on the forests ofGarhwal Himalaya, India. The Environmentalist19: 293-303.

Pandey, D. 2002.Fuel wood Studies in India-Myth and Reality. Centre for InternationalForestry Research, Indonesia, 94 pp.

Pandey, U. and Singh, J.S. 1984. Energy-flowrelationship between agro and forestecosystems in Central Himalaya.Environmental conservation11(1): 45-53.

Ralhan, P.K, Negi, G.C.S. and Singh S.P.1991. Structure and function of the agroforestrystystem in the Pithoragarh district of CentralHimalaya: an ecological viewpoint. Agriculture,Ecosystem and Environment35: 283-296.

Reddy, A. K. N. 1981. An Indian villageagricultural ecosystem: Case study of Ungravillage. Part II. Discussion Biomass1: 77-88.

Sagar, S.R. Chandola, L.P. and Ansari, M.V.1985. Pilot Survey of fuel consumption in ruralareas, Indian Forester111(5): 305-317.

Schlckhoff, U. 1995. Himalayan forest covers

change in historical perspectives: A case studyfrom the Kaghan Valley, Northern Pakistan.Mountain Research and Development 15(1):3-18.

Srivastava, B. P. 1981. High density shortrelation forestry for mitigating the energy crisisin India. Indian Forester107 (12): 769.

Sterling, C. 1976. Nepal AtlanticMonthly 238(4):14-25.

Tucker, R. P 1987. Dimensions ofdeforestation in the Himalayas: The historicalsettings. Mountain Research and Development7(3):328-331.

Vimal, O.P. and Tyagi, P.D. 1984. Energyfrom Biomass. Agricole Publishing Academy,New Delhi, 440 pp.

Wijesinghe, L.C.A. des 1984. A sample studyof biomass fuel consumption in Sri Lankahouseholds. Biomass. 5:261-282.

Table 1: Preliminary survey of villages under investigation

Site Village Totalhousehold AverageFamily size Population Literacy rateHuman Bovine

Tropical Ganga Bhogpur 151 5.93 895 660 15.08

Kunow 50 4.90 245 210 13.08

Sub-tropical Bhainswara 51 4.75 242 80 48.35

Ghargoan 37 4.05 150 108 46.67

Temperate Dhaulana 52 5.92 308 203 43.18

Chunnikhal 30 5.20 156 94 43.59

Mean value 61.83 5.13 332.67 225.83 44.99

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Table 2: Plant species and quantity of fuel wood consumption (kg capita-1

yr-1

) of villages atdifferent altitudes of Garhwal Himalaya (values in parenthesis indicate number ofspecies used)

Temperate region

Plant species Dhaulana Chunnikhal

Quantity(Kg x 10

3)

Energy(Kg x 10

3)

Quantity(Kg x 10

3)

Energy(Kg x 10

3)

Quercus leucotrichophora 62.83 (7) 1038.74 (7) 67.00 (6) 1125.60 (6)

154.33* 2575.94* 143.00* 2402.94*Sub-tropical region

Bhainswara Ghargoan

Anogeissus latifolia 41.33 (8) 694.34 (8) 53.33 (8) 895.94 (8)121.00* 2032.80* 140.00* 2352.20*

Tropical region

Ganga Bhogpur Kunow

Holoptelea integrifolia 54.33 (11) 912.74 13.00 (10) 218.40208.66* 3505.48* 144.99* 2433.62*

*expressed as total values of study village

Table 3: Percent fuel wood consumption (kg captita-1

day-1

) by family size at differentaltitudes of Garhwal Himalaya (values in the parenthesis is range values of familymembers)

Family Size Regions/villages

Tropical Sub-tropical Temperate

Ganga Bhogpur Kunow Bhainswara Ghargoan Dhaulana Chunnikhal

Large 30.86(10-15)

27.59(9-11)

28.71(7-10)

24.95(9-14)

23.17(7-8)

20.03(8-15)

Medium 32.35(6-8)

32.29(6-7)

33.91(5-6)

33.33(6-8)

32.76(5-6)

33.97(6-7)

Small 36.79(1-5)

39.11(1-5 )

37.38(1-4)

41.72(1-5)

44.07(1-4)

45.99(1-5)

Total 7.42 7.90 5.19 5.01 7.51 5.75

Fig. 1: Rate of fuel wood consumption (kg captia-1

yr-1

) at different altitudes of Garhwal Himalaya(values in parenthesis indicate total consumption)

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Fig. 2 Seasonal fuel wood consumption pattern of villages at different altitudes of GarhwalHimalaya

Fig. 3 Labour energy expenditure (MJ capita-1

yr-1

) at different altitudes of Garhwal Himalaya (valuesin the parenthesis indicate distance (km) of forest from village)