PIPPALDHARI (ADILABAD): Demand for firewood has gone up in rural areas with the frequent raise in LPG prices that have by now touched Rs 1,000 per cylinder.
People are showing interest in using firewood that costs less as compared to the purchase a domestic gas cylinder. A bullock cart loaded with firewood is sold for Rs 500 that could be used for a month by a family under normal conditions.
Indirectly, the increase in the prices of domestic and commercial LPG gas cylinders showed a negative impact on forest conservation and this will result in deforestation.
It is said that officials must encourage people for the setting up of gobar gas plants (cow dung gas plants) that are not that costly and supply material on subsidy in rural areas to reduce the dependence on the forest for firewood and also on LPG cylinders.
According to official sources, the fresh prices are as follows: the LPG domestic cylinder of 14kg costs `1,028 while the previous price was Rs 978, and the 19kg commercial cylinder price rose to Rs 2,615 from `2,505.
Many families have stopped cooking food on gas stoves after LPG prices
went up.
Many poor families that had got domestic cylinders and stoves on subsidy and free of cost from the state and central governments till now are gradually reviving their dependence on firewood. They are unable to afford the cost of the cylinders.
The commercial LPG cylinder cost has also increased. Those running small hotels and roadside fast-food centres are increasingly using firewood.
Rajeshwar of Pippaldhari of Adilabad Rural Mandal said his family was now depending more on firewood due to the increase in prices of domestic LPG cylinders. They can save nearly `400 by using firewood every month.
The owners of small business units say they spend more money on purchasing commercial cylinders.
In some areas, the poor are going to nearby forests to collect firewood for their cooking purposes, as had been done in the long past, instead of depending on a LPG gas for cooking. Many are seen bringing firewood in bullock carts from the nearest forests and selling this to the villagers. They need not go long-distance for the buyers.
Some people bring firewood on bicycles from the nearest forest and sell the same to hotels in Adilabad town, Utnoor, Ichoda, and Gudihathnoor in the Adilabad district. The same is the case with other towns in Nirmal, Komaram Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial in erstwhile Adilabad district.
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