How cow dung is beating India’s cooking gas crunch
It is easy to find biogas supporters in a Hindu-majority nation where cows are revered and dung and urine have many uses
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On a stove with blue flames, she flips a chapatti flatbread, burning biogas produced from cow dung – an alternative fuel helping ease pressure on supplies.
“It cooks everything,” the 25-year-old said in her courtyard kitchen in Nekpur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, about 90km (55 miles) from New Delhi. “If the pressure goes down, we let it rest for half an hour and it works again.”
AdvertisementIndia consumes more than 30 million tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) annually, importing over half its needs.
The government insists there is no shortage of cooking gas, but supply delays, panic buying and black marketeers have created long queues for cylinders.
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