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Rural households in forest regions of Madhya Pradesh continue to rely on firewood and dung despite widespread LPG coverage
Rising fuel costs and irregular incomes make clean cooking fuels unaffordable for many families
Government schemes have expanded access, but sustained usage remains limited on the ground
Energy spending is rising faster than food expenditure, placing added strain on rural budgets
Affordability, reliability and local economics shape energy choices as much as policy
After visiting Chirai Dongri, the next morning (February 10, 2026), the road into the forested stretches of Mandla district opened into a landscape where sal trees, red soil and scattered hamlets set the rhythm of daily life. The aim was simple: to understand how villages located close to forests meet their energy needs, and why their spending on energy is rising compared to food and other essentials.
A brief halt at a timber depot along the way offered an early clue. Logs lay stacked in geometric precision as a live auction unfolded — an indication that forests here are not just ecological spaces, but economic lifelines, tightly regulated and deeply relied upon.
Further ahead lies Chaugan, a historic tribal village shaped by Gond and Baiga heritage. Its proximity to the Narmada River and Kanha National Park lends it both cultural and ecological significance. The first image that stands out is almost elemental: a young boy pulling up a bucket of water from a well, a narrow opening that sustains everyday life.
A few steps away stands Sonu Parte’s house, kaccha but carefully maintained. The courtyard is neatly plastered with cow dung, with a third of the space occupied by stacked firewood, twigs and dung cakes. Parte, a 31-year-old farmer and daily wage labourer, stands barefoot outside, greeting visitors with an easy smile.
When asked about the pile of biomass, he responds matter-of-factly: “We use it for all purposes — cooking, heating and others.”
Seated in the courtyard alongside his mother and brother, the conversation turns to cleaner cooking fuels. Does he have a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connection? “We have one, but it’s a personal connection,” Parte tells DTE. “Though a refill costs me Rs 900-950, using it to cook meals for 12 people is not economically viable.”
Parte says he applied for a connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) four years ago but has yet to receive one. The existing cylinder is used sparingly, mostly to make tea when guests arrive. Daily meals are cooked on a chulha, a traditional mud stove fuelled by firewood, farm residue and dung cakes.
A similar story unfolds a few kilometres away in Kopariya village, under Ghughari tehsil. Shakuntala Pandro, a 50-year-old daily wage labourer, relies entirely on the forest and her livestock. “We depend on firewood and dung cakes for everything — cooking, heating, even lighting during power cuts,” she tells DTE.
Her family applied for a PMUY connection about five years ago but has received no response. With a monthly income of Rs 3,000-4,000, even a subsidised LPG refill, now costing around Rs 980 amid global price pressures, is beyond reach.
In Amanala village, roughly 20 km away, Mamta Dhurvi’s experience reflects another dimension of the problem: not access, but sustained usage. She received a PMUY connection a couple of years ago but quickly reverted to traditional fuels.
“When I realised one refill wouldn’t last a month for six people, I went back to the chulha,” Dhurvi says. “I refill the cylinder once every four to five months, only for emergencies.” With easy access to forests and biomass from her four-acre farmland, the economics of LPG simply do not add up.
Launched in May 2016, PMUY aims to provide clean cooking fuel to rural and low-income households that would otherwise rely on polluting fuels such as firewood and dung. Beneficiaries receive a stove and their first cylinder free, with subsequent refills subsidised.
For 2025-26, the government has provided a targeted subsidy of Rs 300 per 14.2kg cylinder for up to nine refills annually. According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, the scheme covers about 103.4 million beneficiaries as of January 1, 2026. Yet the gap between access and actual usage remains evident on the ground.
In Tilaipani village, Jayanti Yadav’s household presents a slightly different picture. With a monthly income of around Rs 10,000, a pucca house, and access to electricity and modern appliances, the family can afford LPG refills but still relies primarily on a chulha.
“Given rising prices and irregular income, LPG alone doesn’t work for us,” she tells DTE. “We use about seven to eight pieces of firewood and five dung cakes daily for two meals.” Her family’s LPG cylinder lasts two to two-and-a-half months. They do not have a PMUY connection, though they applied for one two to three years ago.
Energy use here is closely tied to broader household economics. The family spends about Rs 500 a month on electricity, which increases during summer due to use of a cooler, refrigerator, fans and lights. Mobility adds to the burden: about Rs 300 a week on petrol and Rs 700-800 a month on travel to Mandla for essentials.
Back in Kopariya, energy access itself remains unreliable. “Power cuts can last up to eight days in summer,” Pandro says. Parte, meanwhile, struggles with rising electricity bills. Earning Rs 150-300 a day for two to three days a week, his household operates on a fragile budget.
“Our weekly expenses are around Rs 500-700,” he says. “We try to save Rs 80 on transport by walking, but still spend Rs 10 daily to send one child to school.”
Food security is partially buffered by farm produce and subsidised rations, but energy remains a persistent strain.
These ground realities raise two broader questions: why do a majority of rural households continue to rely on biomass despite widespread LPG coverage?
Data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 78th round Multiple Indicator Survey (2020-21) shows that more than 46 per cent of rural households still depend on biomass for cooking. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5) places the figure even higher, at 56.1 per cent in rural India, compared with just 9.5 per cent in urban areas.
The second question is why energy-related expenses are rising faster than overall consumption.
The NSSO Household Consumption and Expenditure Survey (HCES) shows that monthly per capita spending on energy rose from Rs 174 in 2011-12 to Rs 565 in 2023-24 - an increase of In rural Madhya Pradesh, average monthly per capita expenditure stands at Rs 3,113, with energy accounting for nearly a quarter of non-food spending. Yet more than 75 per cent of households in the state continue to rely on biomass.
State-level trends reinforce this pattern. Dependence on solid fuels remains high in Chhattisgarh (84.2 per cent), Odisha (76 per cent), West Bengal (76 per cent) and Madhya Pradesh (72.5 per cent).
Globally, fuelwood has not faded into obsolescence. A market analysis by consulting firm Grand View Research estimates the fuelwood market at $37.04 billion in 2024, projected to reach $45.79bn by 2030. While policy-driven demand exists in developed regions, in Asia-Pacific the persistence of fuelwood is largely driven by affordability and access constraints.
More than half of the global fuelwood supply (51.5 per cent) still comes from natural forests, underlining continued dependence in developing countries. In India, despite expanded access to modern fuels, biomass remains deeply embedded in rural energy systems.
At the same time, transitions are underway. Processed biomass - such as pellets and briquettes — is gaining traction, particularly in industrial sectors like agro-processing and textiles, where rising fossil fuel costs and tighter emission norms are pushing a shift towards cleaner thermal energy.
But in villages such as Chaugan, Kopariya, Amanala and Tilaipani, the transition remains uneven and incomplete, underscoring the importance of affordability in clean energy access.
Over a fortnight in February, Down To Earth (DTE) travelled across 15 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh to understand these contradictions.
Part of a Down To Earth series based on field reporting across rural India.