Its a tiny hamlet which has done away with
the use of fossil fuels, where solar cookers and biogas plants are the
order of the day. Welcome to Bysanivaripalli, the only smoke-free
village in the country.
Every morning when Paplamma, the matron in-charge for preparing midday
meals for school kids in the tiny village of Bysanivaripalli, sets out
for her assignment, she prays for a blazing Sun. Her prayer may be
unusual, given the fact that temperature in this part of India hovers
between 33 and 42 degree celsius for most part of the year. But
Paplamma prays for the bright Sun as her school uses solar cookers for
preparing meals for 50 kids in the kitchen under the open sky.
Paplamma's worries get particularly heightened during those two months
when monsoon clouds cover the South Indian peninsula. But no longer so.
She need not worry at all. For, this village of 223 residents has, of
late, developed a more durable back-up in biogas plants operated by cow
dung.
Welcome to India's first smoke-free village. Bysanivaripalli could have
been written off as yet another nondescript village in India. But,
since July 2005, this tiny silk rearers' village (situated about 110 km
from Chintamani in Kolar district) has emerged as the first smoke-free
village in the country. The inhabitants belonging to 36 families heat
water or cook their meals on either solar cookers or stoves burning
biogas plants. Villagers have stopped the use of fossil fuels and LPG
(liquefied petroleum gas). In fact, the village has become a hub of
users and enthusiasts of non-conventional energy. Last December, it
hosted a conference on renewable energy, attracting activists from
Germany, Austria, Sri Lanka and various parts of India.
Today, 36 families of Bysanivaripalli share among themselves 23 biogas
plants and 26 solar cookers. It all started in 1986 when a progressive
farmer set up a small biogas plant in the backyard of his house,
feeding it with cow dung. The village was generating 500 tonnes of cow
dung and 50 tonnes of sericulture waste per annum. Seeing the success
of the maiden plant, another 22 farmers who owned cattle set up similar
plants. The sheer number of biogas plants came as a surprise to
Jagadeeswar Reddy, a visiting official of the Non-Conventional Energy
Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP). Mr Reddy used some
motivational skills and persuaded the non-cattle owning families to set
up solar cookers some two years ago.
But finances were a major question for these 26 families as most of
them were cash-strapped. Each solar cooker cost Rs 6,250. The Union
Government provided a subsidy of Rs 2,500 through NEDCAP, the nodal
agency for Andhra Pradesh. Mr Reddy's presentation about the experiment
at 'Renewable 2004' meet in Germany and a gathering in St Johanne,
Austria, brought in funds from several schools and NGOs like Intersol.
Each family was provided another Rs 2,750 by Gujarat-based Gadhia Solar
Systems which liaised with Intersol. The farmers were asked to pay the
remaining Rs 1,000 in small monthly installments.
NEDCAP trained the youth in assembling solar cookers that came from
Gujarat and women were provided pressure cookers and dark glasses to
wear in order to protect their eyes from the flashback of dazzling
glare of the Sun while cooking. Since dinner was to be prepared before
5 pm, the households were also given hay baskets to keep it warm till
dinner time late in the evening.
NEDCAP also trained women in baking biscuits and cakes and supplying
them to a hostel attached to the nearby Madanapalli Institute of
Technology.
Flush with surplus energy, the villagers today have developed
supplementary sources of income. A village woman, Pallavi, sells
biscuits worth Rs 180 a day, which she bakes over the solar cooker. T
Ramaswamy Reddy, the village launderer, heats his traditional iron box
on the solar cooker. Subbareddy roasts groundnuts on the solar cooker
and sells them at the local market.
But Jagadeeswar Reddy says, apart from the saving of fossil fuels,
benefits also accrue to the environment. The burning of firewood in
traditional stoves was releasing over 1,04,000 kg of carbon dioxide in
the atmosphere. According to NEDCAP's assessment, the villagers save 72
quintals of firewood and 5,800 kg of cooking gas. Besides, the
villagers also generate 300 tonnes of organic fertiliser from the
residue of the biogas plant. In fact, village barns are now stacked
with biomass and twigs from trees which were previously burnt.
In tune with the villagers' spirit, the nearby Rishi Valley Residential
School too has gone totally solar. Meals are cooked for its 400 inmates
through steam piped from giant solar heaters installed over the roof.
Need for hot water bath too is met from the same heater.
Since it was not feasible for the school to have the kitchen under the
open sky, it opted for reflector-based heaters which turn the water
into steam which is then piped into the kitchen. The reflectors move
automatically with the position of the Sun all through the day and the
supply of heat is uninterrupted.
Encouraged by the success in Bysanivaripalli, NEDCAP has identified
another 12 villages to turn them into smoke-free villages.
http://www.deccanherald.com/Content/Mar182008/spectrum2008031757988.asp
