Assessment of fuelwood diversity and consumption patterns in cold desert part of Indian Himalaya: Implication for conservation and quality of life

A plethora of information is available on biomass utilization for household energy need in different parts of world; however such information in cold desert region is very limited. The present study is first of its kind to provide information on biomass utilization, fuelwood species diversity, their regeneration status, and likely impact of fuelwood harvesting in cold desert area of the Kailash Sacred Landscape (KSL) in Indian part. Per Capita Fuelwood Consumption (PCFC) was maximum (5.4 ± 0.30 kg/capita/day) for villages at higher altitude (3800 m) as compared to low altitude (3000 m) village (2.2 ± 0.36 kg/capita/day) for present study. The energy values follow similar trend; maximum for higher altitude (106.4 MJ/capita/day) and minimum for low altitude (43.3 MJ/capita/day). The inhabitants use a total of 14 woody species (3 trees, 11 shrubs) as fuelwood in the cold desert part of KSL. Among these, with high Probability of Use (PU) Juniperus communis (0.86), Pinus wallichina (0.48) and Abies pindrow (0.47) emerged as preferred species and thereby having very high pressure. Likewise, the Resources Use Index (RUI) for fuelwood consumption remained high for Juniperus communis (759.5), Pinus wallichaina (479.2) and Abies pindrow (391). The regeneration status of preferred species and availability (i.e. density) of other species suggested that the long-term persistence of preferred fuelwood species in the landscape is in question. The study provides evidences that the exiting forests, alpine arid scrublands and pasture may face serious problem of degradation in near future if the current trends of fuelwood harvesting continues. This calls for policy and programme level interventions to protect the fuelwood resources and provide better options of energy to poor inhabitants of cold desert area in KSL part of India.