Energy Consumption Pattern in different Agro-Climatic Zones in Rural Habitations of Western Himalayan Region, India

The present work was conducted to study the energy consumption pattern in different climatic zones (Sub mountain low hill sub tropical, Mid hill sub Humid, High hills wet temperate and High hills dry temperate zone) of rural habitations of Himachal Pradesh, India. Households were sleeted on the basis of multistage random sampling in the selected areas. A pretested questionnaire was prepared and used for conducting primary survey. It was revealed from the study the 90-100% households in the study area used fuelwood as primary energy source, which was followed by LPG and agricultural waste. Electricity was also being used as a source of energy but mainly for lighting. It was found that with the increase in the altitude the per capita per day energy consumption increased in case of fuelwood but the trend was reverse in case of electricity. The fuel consumption varied with the family size, income and land holdings.