Relevance: GS III (Energy & Environment) & GS II (Social Justice) | Source: The Hindu

1. The Core Issue

• The LPG Crisis: High market prices of commercial LPG cylinders are forcing poor rural families to stop buying refills.
• The “Reverse Transition”: Out of economic desperation, families are reverting to burning traditional firewood in basic mud stoves (chulhas).
• The Human Impact: This is a major public health crisis. It causes severe Indoor Air Pollution, leading to deadly respiratory diseases in women and children. It also increases the daily physical burden (drudgery) on women who must spend hours foraging for wood.

2. The Practical Solution: Improved Cookstoves (ICS)

To make biomass cooking safe, the administration is promoting the use of Modern Biomass Stoves (or Improved Cookstoves).

• The Science (Secondary Aeration): Traditional mud stoves waste heat and create thick smoke (they have a low “thermal efficiency” of barely 10%). Modern stoves use a clever design to push extra air into the fire. This extra air traps and burns the soot and toxic gases before they can escape as smoke.
• The Result: These modern stoves achieve a high thermal efficiency of 38% to 45%. They drastically reduce toxic smoke and cut daily fuel consumption by more than half.

3. Why is this a smart administrative move?

• Highly Cost-Effective: 4 kg of firewood in a modern stove delivers the exact same cooking energy as 1 kg of expensive LPG. This saves poor households over 60% in daily fuel costs.
• Solving Stubble Burning: These modern stoves do not just burn wood; they run highly efficiently on compressed agricultural waste (briquettes and pellets). This creates a financial market for farm waste, which can help stop farmers from burning crop stubble in North India.
• Funding through “Carbon Credits”: The pollution saved by using these clean stoves can be measured and converted into global Carbon Credits. The government can use this international “carbon finance” to subsidize the initial cost of the stove (around ₹2,000) for Below Poverty Line (BPL) families.

UPSC Value Box

With reference to rural energy transition and clean cooking initiatives in India, consider the following statements:

1. Improved Cookstoves (ICS) utilize secondary aeration technology to achieve a significantly higher thermal efficiency compared to traditional mud chulhas.
2. The Unnat Chulha Abhiyan is a dedicated government initiative administered by the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas.
3. Modern biomass stoves are capable of utilizing compressed agricultural waste, such as briquettes, as a primary fuel source.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only

(b) 2 and 3 only

(c) 1 and 3 only

(d) 1, 2 and 3

Correct Answer: (c)