Fuelwood consumption patterns in Fakot watershed, Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand

Biomass is one of the key energy sources in rural India and constitutes 75% of the total energy consumption. In the tough mountain terrain, the consumption pattern depends on the availability of the resources as well as socio-economic conditions of the people. The present study is conducted at Fakot micro-watershed in Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, India. The present paper explores the variations in fuelwood consumption pattern in the watershed level at different altitudes with respect to family size. In the present study, the fuelwood consumption in the watershed is in the range of 455–2388 gm/person/day. Absence of serial autocorrelation in the seasonal fuel consumption data is observed. Season specific models for fuel consumption are proposed.

► We assessed the influence of key factors such as elevation, household size and income on per capita fuelwood consumption pattern in a representative micro-watershed.
► Both the increase in village elevation and household size showed the decrease in per capita fuelwood consumption.
►  Fuelwood consumption is season-dependent and mean annual consumption value is the mean value of seasonal data.
► We showed a season based model is more reflective of the actual watershed level fuelwood demand in central Himalaya.