Rural India’s energy crisis: In Mohad & Sursuli, high LPG refill cost keeps rural households tied to biomass

In many of Chhattisgarh's villages, polluting cooking fuels such as firewood remain the popular choice despite LPG access, ground reports by Down To Earth (DTE) showed.

On February 12, 2026, this reporters visited Mohad village in Rajnandgaon district and observed a similar trend. Bhushan Sahu, a 49-year-old daily wage labourer and farmer, was pacing barefoot across his courtyard, on which stood two parallel mudhouses for his family of 11. In one corner of the courtyard, Bhushan’s mother, Sebti Sahu, was frying fritters in a kadhai (deep frying pan) set atop a chulha (stove), a traditional mud stove, feeding it with thick pieces of firewood and dung cakes, laying aside. The quantity suggested the family was expecting guests.

It raised a question: Despite the visible dependence on firewood, did the household have an LPG connection under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY)? They did.

Sebti is a PMUY beneficiary, but she told DTE that an LPG cylinder lasts barely 10-15 days. A few years ago, her daughter-in-law also received a separate LPG connection in her own name. Even then, paying for two refills a month remains prohibitively expensive. Consequently, the household cooks most of its meals on the chulha, relying on firewood and crop residue collected from their farm (except for preparing tea and boiling water).

PMUY, launched by the Union government in May 2016, aims to provide clean cooking fuel such as LPG to “rural and deprived households” dependent on polluting fuels such as firewood, coal and cow-dung cakes. Beneficiaries receive an LPG stove and their first cylinder free of cost, while subsequent refills are subsidised.

For 2025-26, the Union government is providing a targeted subsidy of Rs 300 per 14.2 kg cylinder for up to nine refills annually. According to the Petroleum Planning and Analysis Cell under the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), 105.4 million beneficiaries were covered under PMUY as of May 7, 2026.

In February, over a fortnight, DTE travelled across 15 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh to examine two questions. 

The first was why, despite PMUY’s wide reach, 56.1 per cent of rural India continues to rely on firewood, dung cakes and other biomass fuels. This figure comes from the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5), conducted during 2019-21, which also notes that household smoke exposure from solid cooking fuels and tobacco has harmful health effects. Data from the National Sample Survey Office’s (NSSO) 78th round Multiple Indicator Survey, released in 2020-21, tells a similar story: more than 46 per cent of rural India still cooks with biomass.

The second question was why energy- and mobility-related expenses have increased sharply in rural household budgets even as overall consumption remains modest.

NSSO’s Household Consumption-Expenditure Surveys show that monthly per capita expenditure on fuel, lighting and conveyance increased from Rs 174, or 12 per cent of total expenditure, in 2011-12 to Rs 565, or 13.7 per cent, in 2023-24 — an increase of 224 per cent in a little over a decade. By comparison, spending on food rose by 156 per cent during the same period.

Data from NSSO’s Multiple Indicator Survey for 2020-21 and Household Consumption Expenditure Survey for 2022-23 show that in these states, spending on fuel, lighting and conveyance accounts for a substantial share of rural consumption expenditure. For cooking, reliance on traditional biomass such as firewood, crop residue and dung cakes remains high.

In Chhattisgarh, rural monthly per capita expenditure is Rs 2,466. Of this, 8.77 per cent is spent on fuel and lighting and another 8.13 per cent on conveyance. Together, energy and related items account for 31 per cent of non-food expenditure. The state also records the highest dependence on biomass for cooking in the country, at more than 84 per cent, with dung cake accounting for 9 per cent.

DTE’s reporting through these villages showed that while access to energy has improved in recent years, affordability remains a challenge.

Households such as Sebti’s, despite having LPG connections, continue to rely on traditional cooking fuels because refill costs remain high. Affordability, reliability and the availability of local resources continue to shape household energy use.

In Sursuli village of Balod district in Chhattisgarh, DTE met another PMUY beneficiary, Danshir Bai. “Paying for refills every month for a 4-member family is difficult,” she said.

Her son, Khomlan Sahu, works as a technician for one of India’s telecom companies while also cultivating seasonal crops and vegetables on the family farm. Though the family’s economic condition is relatively better, he said household finances remain under pressure.

Their monthly expenditure reaches Rs 12,000-15,000, including nearly Rs 3,000 spent on petrol because he travels almost 100 kilometres daily for work. Electricity bills add another Rs 400-500. His father works as a daily wage labourer while his mother supplements the income through sewing work. The family’s total monthly income is around Rs 20,000. “The price of fuel for his motorbike pinches my pockets more,” Khomlan said.

This is despite the family’s rice and vegetables coming from their own farm. Like Sebti’s household, they reserve LPG largely for occasional use while daily meals are prepared using firewood and biomass.

Prices of LPG, firewood and dung cakes have risen amid the ongoing United States-Israel's war on Iran since February 28, 2026. In nearby villages, residents reported that firewood now sells for Rs 1,400-1,500 per quintal, while dung cakes cost Rs 2 apiece — a rise of nearly 40-50 per cent.

Back in Mohad village, Sebti’s family itself is divided into three households: One for each of her two sons and another for herself and her husband.

Bhushan’s household consists of five members, with him as the sole breadwinner. He earns Rs 380 a day through wage labour and manages a monthly income of roughly Rs 10,000. Of this, nearly Rs 6,000 is spent on essentials, including electricity bills that can go up to Rs 600 depending on the season.

But for Bhushan, diesel has become one of the largest expenses. “For a 1-acre land, the cost comes around Rs 60,000 now and a significant share of it remains diesel as pumps, tractors, thrashers, harvesters operate on diesel. About 10 years ago, the cost was around 10,000-15,000,” he told DTE.

Data from MoPNG reflects the gap between LPG access and regular use. India’s domestic LPG consumption has nearly doubled over the past decade, rising from 17.2 million tonnes in 2015-16 to 33.2 million tonnes in 2025-26. As of July 1, 2025, the country had 330.5 million active LPG consumers.

Yet around 14 per cent of LPG connections in 2024-25 were classified as “inactive”, meaning no refill had been purchased in the preceding year.

“Refill rates are especially low among the beneficiaries of PMUY,” a senior MoPNG official told DTE in March, requesting anonymity. The official said that while households relying exclusively on LPG generally consume seven to eight cylinders annually, PMUY beneficiaries in most states use fewer than three cylinders a year. In parts of eastern and northeastern India, usage drops to just one or two cylinders annually. High upfront refill costs, despite subsidies, and persistent supply-chain constraints remain major deterrents.

A February 2026 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development, titled India’s Clean Cooking Shift: Scaling non-fossil fuel solutions, found that 37 per cent of Indian households still depend primarily on polluting cooking fuels. In rural India, the figure rises to 51 per cent.

Beyond India, a United Nations report, Global Forest Goals Report 2026, released on May 11, 2026, said the world lost more than 40 million hectares of forests between 2015 and 2025, driven largely by agricultural expansion and rising demand for fuelwood.

“Demand for woodfuel (fuelwood and charcoal) is a major driver of forest loss and degradation,” the report stated, linking the trend to population growth, energy demand and limited access to cleaner alternatives.

Part of a Down To Earth series based on field reporting across rural India. A detailed analysis of this reportage was published in the April 16-30, 2026 print edition of the magazine.