News Excerpt:

Data from the 2014-2015 ACCESS survey, conducted by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water, found LPG’s cost to be the foremost barrier to its adoption and continued use in rural poor households.

More about Survey: 

• Around 750 million Indians primarily use solid cooking fuels like wood, dung, agricultural residues, coal, and charcoal, which are associated with health hazards and socio-economic and environmental impacts.
• Despite various government schemes to promote LPG usage, such as the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and subsidies, 
• The high cost of LPG refills remains a significant challenge for low-income households.
• India reportedly had the highest LPG prices, around ₹300/litre, among 54 countries for which LPG prices were available.

Suitable alternatives:

• Though fuelwood provides people with cooking fuel, it also degrades the forest and forces people to risk adverse encounters with wild animals.
• While the PMUY scheme initially prompted many households to switch to LPG, the subsequent price hikes rendered the advantages short-lived.
• Devising locally acceptable, suitable, and sustainable alternatives to fuelwood is important to secure the forests, wildlife and locals’ livelihoods.
• West Bengal Forest Department and Joint Forest Management Committees are helping four villages acquire saplings of high fuelwood value on the conditions that -
• they will be native species, 
• prohibited from logging, 
• unpalatable to elephants and
• will be maintained by locals. 
• Alternatives like efficient cooking stoves, optimised shade tree density in tea plantations, and multi-stakeholder meetings for resource governance are also in the works.

WayForward:

• The LPG price rise could cause socio-ecological crises in areas with no viable fuelwood alternatives and socio-economic deprivation is common.
• The government must focus on making and keeping LPG affordable. 
• Solid cooking fuels must be freed from socio-ecological endangerment, such as by introducing a national policy on smokeless cooking stoves that consume less fuelwood.