The greatest discovery made by man ever was the fire with which he got the power to cook food and since then it has created an intense demand on wood. With development in science and technology and discovery of new fuels, the choice of energy kept shifting to cleaner fuel. While, the modern fuels like LPG and kerosene have been the major energy sources in urban areas, but in rural households it is the traditional bio fuels that are being used as the major energy source for cooking. The fact that natural resources are freely available at zero cost involved, added with unavailability of alternate fuel sources the bio fuels, chiefly wood and cow dung are the principal fuels used in rural areas. Fuelwood has been the chief fuel choice in rural India. As population is increasing fast and land areas under forest are shrinking, so it is indeed an alarming situation. Women and children with fuelwood. (Mirzapur, September, 2010)
Debadityo Sinha is an award-winning Indian ecologist and conservationist with a keen interest in studying the impact of law, policy, politics, and culture on conservation. He is the founder and Managing Trustee of 'Vindhyan Ecology & Natural History Foundation', and a member of IUCN Species Survival Commission- Bear Specialist Group. He is associated with Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy as a Senior Resident Fellow and leading the 'Climate & Ecosystems' team.