Factors Affecting Fuel-wood Consumption-a Micro Level Study

In the present paper an attempt has been made to study different factors affecting fuelwood consumption. The extent of dependance on forests for fuel-wood, at a village level has also been estimated by using the survey data. The study was conducted in the higher hills of district Shimla of Himachal Pradesh during the summer season of 1985. The study revealed that firewood is the only source of cooking energy in the area. It has been found that the number of meals cooked in a day has got significant effect on the fuelwood consumption followed by the number of persons per hearth. The effect of availability of fuelwood from owned sources has not been found to be significant. Further, for more than 80 per cent of their fuel- wood requirements villagers were found to depend on forests and about 15 per cent of fuel-wood requirement is being met from owned sources.