Koodugal, a voluntary organisation working towards sparrow conservation, has diversified its efforts and has started helping villages install biogas plants and achieve energy self-sufficiency.
Several families in villages, including Chaparthi and Thaliyur, Kaveripattinam block in Krishnagiri district, now have biogas plants that have been operating for a few months now.
Koodugal Trust along with Lennox International has installed biogas plants to provide options for alternative and cost-effective fuel.
The trust’s founder D. Ganeshan said the villagers were mainly dependent on agriculture and cattle for their livelihood. “We decided to provide biogas plants as a renewable source of fuel with the locally- available raw material — cow dung. Residents now have plants with a minimum capacity of 1,000 litres installed in their houses. These would produce gas enough for cooking for at least two hours daily ,” he said.
The initiative would help residents save the cost of purchasing eight to 10 gas cylinders per year and cope up with spiralling LPG prices. There are plans to install about 1,000 more such plants in villages. The organisation is in the process of identifying beneficiaries in rural areas.
Besides creating awareness against plastic waste and on other renewable energy sources like solar energy, the organisation is engaged in organic farming of paddy and green chilli crops to popularise the concept among farmers.
“We are continuing our main initiative to distribute 10,000 nest boxes across the State for sparrow conservation,” Mr. Ganeshan.
