Extent of Fuel wood Scarcity and Households Responses

Abstract

Fuelwood is wood which is mostly used for the domestic cooking purpose, especially in the hill areas and is derived from forests of various kinds in various forms. However, the gap between demand for and supply of fuelwood has been widened in the past few years, which lead to the problem of fuelwood scarcity. The demand for fuelwood has increased due to various factors like increase in population, increase in cost of modern fuels, poverty and non-availability of other alternative fuels whereas the supply of fuelwood is limited to some extent. This paper try to measure the extent of fuelwood scarcity, level of fuel switching and other alternatives to fuelwood scarcity being adopted by the households in Panchari and Chenani Blocks of District Udhampur of Jammu and Kashmir State. Sources of fuelwood, types and quality of fuelwood and distance covered for its collection by the households are being used for measuring the extent of fuelwood scarcity. Similarly, for measuring fuel switching level and other responses to fuelwood scarcity, the number of households using LPGs, monthly consumption of LPG along with reasons for switching to LPG etc. taken into consideration.In order to find out other alternatives to fuelwood scarcity, monthly consumption of Kerosene, Electricity, Crop Residue and Dung has been taken.