BULANDSHAHR, INDIA – As the Iran war triggers cooking gas shortages and long queues across India, rural households like Gauri Devi’s in Uttar Pradesh are firing up biogas stoves fueled by cow dung to keep meals cooking without disruption.
The 25-year-old villager mixes dung with water and feeds it into an underground digester that produces methane for her blue-flame stove, perfect for chapatis, vegetables, tea and lentils. She reserves scarce LPG cylinders for emergencies only, praising the system’s reliability even during low-pressure periods.
India guzzles over 30 million tonnes of LPG yearly, importing more than half, but government-subsidized biogas digesters, over five million installed since the 1980s, offer a homegrown fix. These units churn out piped gas for cooking plus nutrient-rich slurry that farmers call “black gold” for superior crop fertilization amid global fertilizer disruptions.
Farmer Pramod Singh’s larger setup handles daily dung from four cows to feed six people, while local leader Pritam Singh has helped install 15 plants in his village this year alone as LPG panic buying surges. With India’s massive cattle herds and 2070 carbon neutrality goal, authorities now mandate biogas blending into liquid fuels, spurring multi-million-dollar plants alongside affordable rural units costing 25,000-30,000 rupees after subsidies.
Yet challenges persist: biogas remains a fraction of cooking fuel due to LPG convenience, needing organized maintenance like “mini factories” to thrive beyond households. Labourers like Ramesh Kumar Singh skip it for lack of space or time, still braving scorching queues, while elders like 77-year-old Mahendri endure days without cylinders.