Coastal villagers switch to LPG from Sundarbans’ firewood

Gone are the days when cooking meals twice a day used to take a toll on Salma Begum.

Starting from lighting the chula (a traditional wood-fired clay stove) to sitting by it amid smoke and heat, the homemaker from Khulna's Dacope upazila would spend nearly four hours a day preparing food for her six-member family.

"My eyes would sting when the smoke spewed from the stove. But my bigger worry was firewood. My children would often have to go out to collect firewood," said the 32-year-old mother of two.

But now, Salma does almost all her cooking on her modern stove, fueled by a liquefied petroleum gas  from a cylinder.

"The gas cylinder has made my life easy. The smoke and the tension of collecting firewood have gone away," said Salma, who uses the gas cylinder once a day.

Like Salma's family, hundreds of villagers in the Sundarbans-adjacent areas now use LPG cylinders. Even five or six years ago, most villagers in the area used to cook using firewood, especially wood collected from the local Sundari and Kakra trees.

In a number villages close to the Sundarbans, such as Kalabogi, Nolian, Sutorkhali, and Laudob, LPG usage has changed the lifestyle pattern of the inhabitants.

People in Dacope, Paikgacha, and Koyra upazilas say that life without LPG is not an option now as most homes have removed traditional fireplaces. Sources of firewood have become restricted as well, which in turn reduces the pressure on the Sundarbans. However, they have to count extra money to bring about this change in fuel consumption.

On a visit to Kalabagi Jhulantpara village in Dacope upazila, Khulna, this correspondent saw the Bhadra River to the east of the village and the Sibsa river to the west, with the Sundarbans visible beyond the village on the other side. Not a single house in the entire village is built on the ground. The villagers live in huts made on a base of Kakra poles, Raintree wood planks and Golpata fences from the Sundarbans.

There were nets and boats lying idle near almost every house, hanging toilets attached to each room. Almost all the houses in the village have LPG cylinders and stoves in their kitchens, even though they do not have electricity.

The village of Kalabagi is made up of 460 families. According to villagers, 450 of them use LPG for cooking.

The villages around the Sundarbans are mostly poverty-stricken, and the livelihood of those who live there involve collecting shrimp and lobster fry from the river, or catching fish. Many of them collect wood, Nipa palm leaves, and honey from the Sundarbans.

Mina Begum, 42, of Nolian village has been using gas instead of wood for cooking for four years now.

"Those who cannot afford to buy gas resort to buying firewood from local poachers for Tk 100 to 160 per maund. But that is a very small group. The gangs are not able to collect wood anymore due to surveillance by the forest department. So locals are forced to turn to gas.

"There is a lot of smoke while cooking with wood. Now I can cook comfortably using gas. A gas cylinder lasts a couple of months for a family of four,'' she said.

However, they have to pay prices that are higher than what is fixed for LPG. Mina Begum informs that she recently bought a 12 kg LPG cylinder for Tk 1,540.

This makes life difficult for some locals as both firewood and LPG are now beyond their means.

Moktar Hossain, a resident of Sutarkhali village, said, "I used to go into the forest with my wife to collect wood. Now it has become difficult to do that. Some families have resorted to using tree branches and leaves that come floating down the river as fuel."

Masum Ali Fakir, chairman of Sutarkhali Union Parishad, said that the locals have used firewood from the Sundarbans for generations. However, almost every local has changed their habit over the past few years.

"It will be beneficial if low cost LPG or some alternative, affordable fuel is provided to the poor people of this area either by the government, the NGOs, or the forest department," he added.

"In our locality, young men who are otherwise suited for marriage don't get brides if there is no LPG connection at their home," said Hira Munda, a resident of Katkata village in Koyra upazila.

LPG is convenient, and it has also become a status symbol, she added.

Abu Naser Mohsin Hossain, divisional forest officer(Sundarbans West), told The Daily Star that now there is no scope to illegally extract resources from the Sundarbans.

"Dependence on forest has been reduced significantly. Locals adjacent of Sundarbans, including Dacope and Koyra of Khulna, and Burigoalini, Gabura, Munshiganj of Satkhira, have been using LPG for the last few years, he said.

"In these regions, the dependence on forest wood for energy was almost one hundred percent. This change is the result of the overall efforts of the forest department, law enforcement agencies, and NGOs. This will improve the quality of life for people as well as the health of the Sundarbans," Mohsin added.