Dilip Kumar Kohli
Clean fuel No need to cut wood in Rangapur, Navasri dt
Navasri, Gujarat: At Rangapur tribal village of Gujarat in Dungri Falia, Navasri district, Art of Living yuvacharyas built and set up 14 gobar gas plants. Women of this village were going to the forest to bring wood for fuel. Thus took 3-4 hours daily, apart from that a lot of trees were cut and the smoke from the wood fire was affecting their health too.
Now they are saving a lot of time and energy, and spending more time in the fields. Earlier the kids’ studies were affected as the women had to go to the forest and keep their children at home to finish the works or to take care of their younger ones, says a school going girl of the village. But now she is a regular in the school and gets time to study at home too.
But initially it was not easy for the art of living volunteer who initiated this project and convinced each family to provide the cow dung and to carry forward the plan. But she didn’t give up. Art of Living donated Rs 3,000 per plant. Villagers gave their free labour. For raw materials, villagers got soft loans and with that the total construction costs were met, says Ramanbhai Dungri who has benefited from the project.
Another beneficiary said that earlier it used to take a long time to prepare tea but now cooking has become so easy and a lot of time that used to go in collecting wood has been saved. The gobar gas plants have changed the quality of life of villagers.
