Liquified petroleum gas, or LPG, is usually seen as a cleaner fuel for kitchens. In Jharkhand, it now appears linked to greener forests as well.
A new study has found evidence that switching from firewood to liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) for cooking may have triggered a large-scale recovery of forest cover across the Indian state. Between 2016 and 2020, as LPG adoption jumped from 25% to 75% of households, satellite data showed forest vegetation increasing at rates that couldn’t be explained by rainfall, temperature, or other environmental factors alone.
The work, published in the journal Trees, Forests and People points to a strong link between the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana (PMUY) and large-scale “greening” across Jharkhand’s forested regions.
Kitchen Connection to Forest Health
Researchers from the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and Birla Institute of Technology examined satellite imagery spanning from 2002 to 2020, focusing on Jharkhand’s forested areas. They used data from the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index, which measures the density of green vegetation using infrared radiation.
What they found was striking. Starting in 2016, when the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana scheme began distributing LPG connections at scale, vegetation indexes showed a distinct upward trend. The researchers ran statistical models to account for climate variables like temperature, precipitation, and forest fires. Even after removing those factors, the greening trend remained.
“I’ve been in touch with the Jharkhand forest department since 2015, and what sparked my interest in studying the relationship between LPG and forest cover was a conversation with an IFS officer in 2020, who said he’d noticed an increase in greenery in the state,” said Rajiv Kumar Chaturvedi, co-author of the study.
The timing wasn’t coincidental. The Ujjwala scheme, launched in May 2016, specifically targeted economically and socially marginalized households, including forest-dwelling communities. In Jharkhand, this meant reaching villages where census data from 2011 had recorded zero LPG connections.
From Data to Doorsteps
To verify what satellites were showing, researchers conducted field surveys in 20 villages in Hazaribagh district during 2020 and 2021. They selected villages that bordered forests, some that showed greening trends in the satellite data and others that didn’t.
The field data provided concrete numbers. In villages surveyed, LPG coverage had reached 66% by 2020, up from essentially nothing in 2011. Households reported collecting an average of 210 kilograms less firewood per year after getting LPG connections, a reduction of about 37%.
The reduction was even more pronounced in villages showing greening trends. In those locations, firewood collection dropped by an additional 103 kilograms per household per year compared to villages without greening.
“In Hazaribagh, we saw that despite being very close to each other, Patra Kalan village saw a greening trend while Niri village, which is deep in the forest, saw a browning trend,” Chaturvedi explained. “We realised that the highway, which is close to Patra Kalan, helps the village access LPG much more easily. In Niri, using LPG made no financial sense when getting access itself is so expensive.”
Why Jharkhand Made Perfect Test Case
Researchers chose Jharkhand for specific reasons. About 73% of its 33 million people live in rural areas. Roughly 30% of the state is covered by forests. And before the Ujjwala scheme, it had some of the lowest LPG access rates in India.
This combination created what scientists call natural experiment conditions. Many villages experienced rapid transitions from firewood to LPG in a short time, while others remained with low LPG access, providing comparison groups.
The study examined data at three scales: the entire state, 256 administrative blocks within the state, and individual villages. At the block level, areas with higher LPG distribution showed stronger positive correlations with increased vegetation, even after accounting for environmental variables.
Globally, about 2.5 billion people across Asia, Africa, and Latin America depend on solid fuels like firewood for cooking. Wood-based fuels account for roughly 55% of all wood usage worldwide.
In India, approximately 25% of villages sit close to forest areas, and households in these locations depend heavily on forests for fuel and fodder. A 2015 assessment found that India extracted about 435 million cubic meters of wood annually, with firewood accounting for 90% of that total nearly 231 million tonnes.
Previous studies in various Indian states have documented declining tree cover density linked to increased firewood consumption. The International Energy Agency projected in 2017 that if 0.8 to 2 billion people globally switched from fuelwood to other fuels by 2030, it could prevent deforestation of 0.8 to 2 million hectares annually.
Refill Problem
The study revealed a significant challenge: getting LPG cylinders is one thing, but refilling them regularly is another.
Field surveys found that forest fringe villagers averaged just 1.97 refills per year. Nationally, Ujjwala beneficiaries average 3.2 refills annually, roughly half the rate of regular LPG consumers who average seven refills per year.
Cost is the main barrier. Survey respondents indicated willingness to pay 400 to 500 rupees per cylinder, compared to the actual price of 600 to 700 rupees. The majority of surveyed households had low annual incomes, making cylinder costs a significant expense.
“Adequate funding is necessary, as many ecological and behavioural impacts become evident only beyond typical project timelines,” said Sanjay Gubbi, a conservation biologist at the Holematthi Nature Foundation, who led a similar project in Karnataka’s MM Hills in 2018.
In that Karnataka project, when affordability and access barriers were addressed, households reduced firewood collection by 65%. Combined with fuel-efficient water heaters, reductions reached 85 to 90%.
What Researchers Still Don’t Know
The study has limitations. Data on greening trends stops at 2020, leaving questions about whether improvements continued. The COVID-19 pandemic restricted field surveys to a limited number of villages. Refill information wasn’t available for many sampled locations.
“In my opinion, directly assessing per capita firewood usage provides a more reliable and immediate indicator of impact,” Gubbi noted, adding that NDVI values don’t always reflect long-term forest changes from short-term interventions.
The study also couldn’t access ground-level data on LPG connections after 2020, limiting understanding of whether gains observed during 2016-2019 were sustained in subsequent years.
Despite limitations, the study provides what researchers call the first systematic evidence at a provincial scale linking clean cooking fuel access to forest recovery. Five other north Indian states have shown similarly rapid Ujjwala penetration and have varying forest cover levels, presenting opportunities for similar analyses.
The government recently announced extending the Ujjwala scheme to 2.5 million more beneficiaries and providing targeted subsidies of 300 rupees per cylinder for up to nine refills annually.
The researchers suggest that additional subsidies of 100 to 200 rupees per cylinder could substantially increase sustained LPG use in forest fringe areas. They note that switching from firewood to LPG reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an estimated 211 kilograms of CO2 per person annually, which could support India’s net-zero emissions goals.
Banner image: Women in rural Rajasthan carry heavy bundles of firewood across rocky forest terrain. Representative image by Engineering for Change via Flickr.com (CC BY-SA 2.0).
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