Introduction

• Many in the rural poor population in India still uses firewood for cooking
• Fuel wood still remains the main component for the poor rural for their cooking
• Unsustainable harvest of fuel wood for cooking is a major cause of forest degradation in India
• Air pollution and health problems is a major concern for the users of these traditional stoves
• Alternative action is to provide the scientifically proven fuel-efficient cook stoves

Objective

• Reduce the use of fuel-wood by households by about 30-35%
• Reduce fuel wood collection time, effort and physical pain
• Reduce kitchen smoke by using these cook-stoves
• Reduce the effect on climate and forest

Area

• Initiating the switch-over in the districts of:
• Coochbihar, Jalpaiguri and Alipurduar districts of West Bengal, India.
• These areas comprise Tea-Gardens, forest villages and poor rural villages and shares international boundaries Bhutan and Bangladesh in North and Southern parts.

Participants of the Project

• Total of 30,000 households will be supplied with the Efficient Fuel Cook-stoves
• About 400 village with an average 75-80 households will be covered
• 3 districts, 30 permanent jobs and indirectly benefiting climate and health.