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In rural Uttar Pradesh, nearly 44 per cent of households use LPG and natural gas for cooking, National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5). At the same time, the state records the highest use of dung cakes in the country, at 9.1 per cent.
Clean cooking fuel remains beyond the regular reach of many rural households. But unlike Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, people here rely more on dung cakes and biomass than firewood.
In Badaun district's Fakeerabad, most households have private liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) connections. However, these connections are used sparingly because refilling cylinders remains expensive. LPG refills cost between Rs 850 and Rs 1,100, with delivery charges adding another Rs 50 at the time of the visit, before the escalation of conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran. As of June 4, 2026, the price of a domestic 14.2 kilogramme Indane cylinder in Badaun was Rs 930.50 per refill, excluding subsidies available under the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY).
The affordability challenge is not limited to LPG. In Bariyapur village of Barabanki district, Suraj Pandey told us in March that LPG refill prices had increased from Rs 850 to Rs 955 within a month. Simultaneously, prices of traditional fuels were also rising. Firewood cost Rs 1,200-1,500 per quintal (100 kg), up by 100-115 per cent within a month, while dung cakes had doubled in price to Rs 2 a piece. As a result, most households continue to prepare meals on traditional chulhas using firewood, crop residue and dung cakes.
Ram Kishore Chandrapal, a resident of Fakeerabad, explaining how government energy schemes function in his and neighbouring villages. During the walk, he described the economics of cooking for his family of six. "Preparing tea and two meals a day for my family requires about 10 dung cakes," he said.
Priced at Re 1 a piece when we visited in February, dung cakes remain significantly cheaper than LPG. Chandrapal supplements them with straw and twigs collected from his one-bigha farm, an option unavailable to landless households. For him, LPG is a secondary fuel. He refills his cylinder only once every four to six months because biomass remains the more affordable choice.
Launched in May 2016, PMUY aims to provide clean cooking fuel to rural and deprived households that would otherwise rely on polluting fuels such as firewood, coal and dung cakes. Beneficiaries receive an LPG connection, stove and first cylinder free of cost. Subsequent refills are subsidised. During 2025-26, PMUY beneficiaries receive 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 (PPAC) under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MoPNG), PMUY covered 103.4 million beneficiaries as of January 1, 2026. The PPAC dashboard also showed that as of May 26, 2026, PMUY connections had crossed 105 million, while India had approximately 332 million active domestic LPG connections. The programme has significantly expanded access to clean cooking fuel across the country. Yet biomass continues to dominate cooking practices in many rural households.
According to the NHFS-5, conducted in 2019-21, 56.1 per cent of India's rural population still relied on firewood, dung cakes and other forms of biomass for cooking. Comparable cooking fuel data is absent from the latest National Family Health Survey (NFHS-6), released on May 29, 2026. NFHS-5 also warned that exposure to household smoke from solid fuels and tobacco has harmful health consequences.
Data from the National Sample Survey Office's (NSSO) 78th Round Multiple Indicator Survey (2020-21) tells a similar story, showing that more than 46 per cent of rural Indians continue to cook using biomass.
The findings from Fakeerabad mirrored questions that had guided DTE's reporting across 15 villages in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh over a fortnight. The first question was straightforward: Why does biomass continue to dominate rural cooking despite the remarkable expansion of PMUY? The second concerned household finances: Why have energy and mobility expenses become a growing burden even as overall rural consumption remains modest? Evidence from NSSO's Household Consumption Expenditure Surveys suggests that energy expenditure has risen faster than food expenditure over the past decade.
Monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) on fuel, lighting and conveyance increased from Rs 174 in 2011-12, accounting for 12 per cent of total expenditure, to Rs 565 in 2023-24, accounting for 13.7 per cent. This represents an increase of 224 per cent in slightly over a decade. Food expenditure rose by 156 per cent during the same period.
Data from the NSSO's Multiple Indicator Survey (2020-21) and Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (2022-23) further show that spending on fuel, lighting and conveyance accounts for a substantial share of rural household budgets across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh.
In rural Uttar Pradesh, MPCE stands at Rs 3,191. Of this, 7.02 per cent is spent on fuel and lighting and another 6.64 per cent on conveyance. Together, these categories account for nearly a quarter of non-food expenditure. Reliance on biomass remains above 55 per cent.
We encountered another dimension of the challenge while travelling through nearby villages such as Sigraura and Dara, which was electrified in 2016. In some households, LPG remains underused not only because of affordability concerns but also because of limited familiarity and confidence in using the technology. In Dara Nagar village of Badaun district, 60-year-old Sushila told DTE that she uses LPG only when her daughter-in-law visits. "I don't know how to use it," she said.
If someone lights the stove for her, she is comfortable cooking on it. Otherwise, she relies on firewood collected from nearby agricultural fields and purchased dung cakes for preparing meals for the two members of her household. She has not refilled her cylinder once during the year since receiving her first LPG connection.
The experiences of Chandrapal, Sushila and many others suggest that India's energy transition remains complex. Traditional fuels continue to coexist with modern energy sources, even in households that possess LPG connections.
A February 2026 report by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), 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.
The report identifies decentralised biogas systems, which use locally available organic waste, as a promising solution. Compared to LPG, biogas can reduce recurring fuel expenses and lower dependence on firewood.
According to Sunil Mani, Policy Advisor with IISD's Energy Programme, scaling up biogas will require a service-based growth model rather than a subsidy-led approach. This would involve strengthening local maintenance networks, promoting prefabricated and factory-manufactured biogas plants that are more standardised and durable than conventional construction models, improving subsidy targeting for low-income households and expanding access to concessional and community-based finance.
"At the same time, biogas promotion should be selective. It works best in regions with adequate feedstock availability and service ecosystems. A uniform, blanket expansion strategy is unlikely to succeed, and in many areas, LPG may remain the more practical solution," Mani told us before.
Across Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh, DTE found a recurring pattern. Access to energy has improved dramatically over the past decade. Millions of households now possess LPG connections and electricity access that were previously unavailable. Yet affordability, reliability and local resource availability continue to determine how energy is actually used.
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.