Fuelwood energy pattern and biomass resources in Eastern Himalaya

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“…For developing countries like India, fuelwood is a major energy source for people surviving at the subsistence level (Sharma,et al, 2009; Negi and Maikhuri 2016) [25] . Lack of the alternative fuelwood sources makes the rural population entirely dependent on wood sources (Bhatt and Sachan, 2004) [5] and they mostly meet their demand solely from the adjoining forests (Hussain et al 2017) [13] . Thus, the intense use of forest resources has put woody species in different regions of the world at risk (Dahdouh Guebas et al2002 and Mushtaq et al 2010) [6,18] .…”

“…2) Maihkuri (1991) [16] carried out fuelwood consumption study in Arunachal Pradesh and recorded relatively high fuelwood consumption values of 90 kg/ capita/ month whereas Bhat and Sachin (2004) observed fuelwood consumption values of 58.8Kg/ Capita/ Month in Garhwal Himalaya. Bhatt et al (2016) [5] observed the change in fuelwood consumption during different seasons in eastern Himalayas. The present study revealed that the region is suffering from constant deforestation and soil erosion which is threatening the regions biodiversity.…”

“…This is particularly important to the areas where limited energy sources lead to high pressure on scarce natural resources. For example, the dependency on forest biomass as primary source of energy was up to 87% in India, (Madhu 2009, and Bhatt et al 2016) [15,5] , 77% in Nepal (Benato et al 2016) [3] , 78% in Bhutan (Rana et al 2016) [23] , 73% in Bangladesh (Huda et al 2014) [12] and 38.82% in Myanmar (Wen et al, 2017) [30] . In the study area, the high energy requirement is believed to be one of the main reasons for natural resource degradation.…”

Assessment of dependency and consumption pattern of different forest products by the forest fringe villages of Shivalik Himalaya, Uttarakhand, India

“…The fuelwood demand of the country ranges from 96–157 million tons having the consumption rate up to 148–242 kg per capita (Bhattacharya and Nanda 1992). However, annual consumption was estimated relatively high in various parts of the Himalaya (Campbell and Bhattarai 1984; Singh 1989; Metz 1990, Rawat et al 2009; Negi and Maikhuri 2016; Bhatt et al 2016). Poor accessibility of the alternative fuelwood sources makes the rural population entirely dependent on wood sources (Bhatt et al 2004).…”

“…Dependency on forest and other associated resources as the primary energy source were very high, especially in the rural areas of the developing countries (Hussain et al 2019). As for example, the dependency on forest biomass as primary source of energy was up to 87% in India (Madhu 2009, and Bhatt et al 2016), 77% in Nepal (Benato et al 2016), 78% in Bhutan (Rana et al 2016), 73% in Bangladesh (Huda et al 2014), 38.82% in Myanmar (Wen et al, 2017), 30% in Malawi (Fisher, 2004); up to 39% in western Ethiopia (Mamo et al, 2007); 40% in Zimbabwe (Cavendish, 2000) and up to 80% in Sub Saharan Africa (Sassen et al 2015). Fuelwood extraction often leads to forest degradation when the extraction is high, forest resources are limited, and alternative energy resources such as kerosene or Liquid Petroleum Gas (LPG) are unavailable (Kohl et al 2015, Specht et al 2015, WEC 2016, Nagothu 2001).…”