1. Pine Needles:
From Threat Economic Opportunity
TEAM IRMA
Madan Sunandan Pursuing PGDRM from IRMA sunandan89@gmail.com
Swapnil Agarwal Pursuing PGDRM from IRMA swapnilchesa@gmail.com

2. Introduction
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Idea Generation (Generating fuel from pine needles):
• Two team members had undergone a two month long internship with CHIRAG, a NGO
• Location: Villages of Nainital district, Uttarakhand
• Specified objective: to gather experiential learning and to develop empathy for the
problem(s) of rural India. Our idea of was borne out of the conditions experienced there.
Rural Setting
• High Altitude and Hilly Terrain: Villages of Kumaon region, Uttarakhand
• Between 1000 m to 3000 m above sea level.
• Traditional Hindu Society with a distinct ‘pahari’ culture
• Hilly terrain makes transport (public & commercial) difficult
• Households are scattered on the hills: away from the main road, only way to reach them is
by foot
• Majority of the people is dependent on Agriculture (mainly horticulture) as a source of
livelihood
• Lot of pine trees are there in this area which mostly falls under village Van Panchayat and
Reserved forest land.
• Villagers are allowed only to collect dry wood (which is limited and getting difficult to
get day by day) from these forests.

3. Van Panchayat Model – A success story
• Perfect Example of government and citizens coming together (Collective Responsibility) for
the management of natural resources
• Autonomous Local Institutions – One of the largest and most diverse experiments in
devolved common property management
• Aim: Involve local villagers for protection and management of forests/natural resources
• As of now, 6000 Van Panchayat managing 405,000 hectares of forests in the states
– Hybrid of state ownership and community responsibility
– These forests known as “Panchyati” forests are not open forests
– Guided by rules elaborately designed and implemented by the communities
– Forest products are distributed among the right holders in an equitable manner
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• There is a strong bond shared between the forest and humans
• Local users consider them as their collective property
Social Capital is Quite High!
• Active role played by NGO’s in this area: Some NGO’s like CHIRAG, AAROHI are very
active in this region
• Promoting SHGs, forming cooperatives and have also contributed to other areas such
as education, health, livelihoods etc.

4. Current Scenario – On site study
Fuel : Wood
Collection : On daily basis by women
Source: Deep Forests – As there are restrictions involved
They need to climb trees
Carry on head, 20-25kg per visit
Families: Joint but with different kitchens : 4-5 people are served per
kitchen
• 20-25 kg is sufficient for 2-3 days (3 meals per day)
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Issues:
• Wood as a fuel is getting difficult to get day by day and women have to go deeper into the forest to
get the wood
• Results in more time spent and more cases of chronic diseases like back pain, joint pain etc
• Increased incidences of fracture due to climbing on trees by women
• Women are overburdened with work: They milk and feed the livestock in the morning, go to forest to
collect wood and fodder in the after-noon, travel daily to fetch water from the river and do all
household work.

5. Our Proposal
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Kumaon region is dotted with a lot of pine forests which shed their leaves (pine needles) in the month of
autumn and pose a much larger threat to the population.
Threats (Forest Fires):
• These pine needles carpet the entire forest
area and are a major reason to the forests
fire in the summer months of April, May &
June.
• Thousands sq-km forest area is set ablaze
which destroys the forest and the
ecosystem.
• Forest fires also diminish people’s access
to ecological services including water,
herbs & timber.
• Also the dense cover of these needles
prevent water seepage & inhibits any
other vegetation in the vicinity.
Opportunity:
• People here mostly depend on forest
wood as a primary source of cooking
fuel and often risk their lives by climbing
trees. Moreover, cutting wood creates a
loss to the biodiversity.
• These pine needles can be easily
converted into a much high calorific
value fuel by a simple physical process.
• Fuel made from pine needles will not
only provide them with a better quality
fuel but will also generate a livelihood
opportunity for them.

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7. The Process
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Harnessing the destructive energy of pine needles to create clean & affordable
energy while restoring biodiversity and creating livelihood opportunities to be
promoted by community ownership models.
Grinded Pine
Needles
Needle + Cow
dung paste
Briquetting
(using low cost
hand held
deviceb)
Finished cooking
fuel blocks
Pine needles
Grinding Mixing Cow-dung
(Binding agenta)
and little water
SunDrying
a – Cow dung also adds to the calorific fuel
b - Device developed by MIT D-labs

8. The Process
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9. Quality assurance
Manpower
Sales & distribution
Pine Needle fuel
processing unit
Villagers
Team +
CHIRAG
SHGs/
Federations
Pine needles
Cow dung
Raw materials
Awareness
Training
Machinery
Cooking fuel
(Sun dried briquettes)
Local Institutional sales
(sweets shop, resorts etc. )
Local Industries
Sales
Production
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Business Model

10. Advantages
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Convenience
Time Factor
Calorific Value
Usage Pattern/
Cooking Behavior
Pollution
Health Benefits
Pine Needles are available easily and readily –
collection and transportation will be easy
Collection time is less as there is no need of going
into deep forests
Calorific value is observed to be significantly high
This change in fuel doesn’t call for any changes in
cooking behavior for the families
Smoke emitted was observed to be less. There is
scope of further improvement in this
Less chronic disease due to lesser physical efforts
A Win-Win Situation !!!

11. Operational Plan
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Team KAG: Spread Awareness, train the locals and would want them to completely own
the model
Implementation:
2 SHG in Village Chaukutha,
Kasiyalekh with 10-12 members
each (Total 20 members)
Each member tries and
collaborates with neighborhood
households
2-3 households then jointly get
the briquetting machine made
(cost of locally available machine
is Rs 70-80)
The idea gets on field with 40-50
households initially
Demand Estimation for the briquettes left over after using in-house:
1.Primary Research: The small restaurants and small sweet shops are acceptable to this idea of using
briquettes
• They are shifting to coal due to increasing LPG prices
• Coal will be sourced from Haldwani
2. NGO Chirag is looking for markets at the same time as well

12. Cost Estimation
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Calorific Value No extra effort
20 Kg Collection on daily
basis
Cost of making the domestic device Rs 70-80
Number of Brqiuettes produced per hour 80
Per day fuel requied, Wood (kg) 10
Calorific Value 3800 Kcal/kg
Amount of Energy Required, Kcal/day 38000
Calorific Value of Briquettes 4500 Kcal/kg
Amount of Briquettes required, kg/day 8.44
Hence savings of briquettes, kg/day 1.56 11.56
Selling Price, Rs/kg 5
Profit per day, Rs 8 57.78
Profit per month, Rs 233 1733
Just by adding a little extra effort, the profit per month would
increase by a whopping 650%

13. TimeLine
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Early
2013
2015
Sept-Nov 2012:
• Understanding the
current process, the
culture and
behavior of the
villages
• Feasibility study of
the proposed
solution
Dec’2012– April 2013:
• Results visible to villagers and
Chirag
• Spreading in the whole village
and other 150 villages by
Chirag, simultaneously
April 2013 – March 2014:
• Scaling up the process
• Forming cooperatives in
Villages by educating them
• Shift to more scientific
machines
• Cost Rs 10,000 – 18,000 (motor
and non-motor driven)
• Finance help by SHG member
Late
2012
Late
2013
Early
2014
Late
2014
March – Dec 2014:
From co-operatives to
Producer Company
2015
Industrialization
• Marketing &
Demand Generation
throughout
• Can replace coal

14. Future Action Plan
• Standard Briquetting Machine Costs:- Rs 10,000 – Rs 15,000
• Cost of Grinding Machine: Rs 5000 - Rs 10,000
• Generates 350 – 400 briquettes per hour of same size and shape
– Saves time and helps in scaling up
• 2-3 households will combine and buy one machine
• Credit through the SHG Member at 1% p.m.
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Industrial Application: Replacement for Coal
• Calorific Value is very similar
• Cheaper and easily available (Getting coal on hills adds to the cost)
• No modification in furnaces, boilers required
Modification of Briquetting Process:
• Burning the pine needles for short span in limited supply of oxygen
• Increases the calorific value
• Smoke-free briquettes

15. • Not eyeing for revenue opportunity: We would spread awareness, train the locals and would want
them to completely own this model.
• Implementation: by SHGs (already formed by CHIRAG) in each village
• Sales will take place in a supply cooperative fashion
• Profits will be distributed equally among the members
• Capital costs:
• Machinery (Grinding machine), physical infrastructure will be owned, arranged and maintained
by the SHGs itself
• However we will provide all the knowledge advisory
• Initial capital cost: We will help them in getting subsidy/grant from various govt. schemes like
NABARD’s and District Rural Development Authority(DRDA’s) Rural Innovation Fund
• In the past they have provided subsidy from 40% to 100% for such similar projects (eg: low
cost sanitary napkin).
• Hub & Spoke approach: This is easily scalable in different villages and may prove to be a constant
source of income for the locals.
• Approach: We would be implementing this model in one village, however would like to provide
consultancy services and build more on this project after successful implementation of the same.
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Summary

16. • Time: This village level cooking fuel solution will reduce fuel gathering time by 70%
• Money: Families can buy this cheap fuel in cash or buy collecting pine needles from the
forest.
• Health & Environment: This will not only save time but quality and health of women – the
prime collector of wood, will also improve cooking in a smoke free environment and see a
reduction in the respiratory related health problems.
• Social Awareness: Community owned model would enable participatory approach for the
unit and thus increased awareness & use of the same.
• Other applications: Apart from briquetting, pine needles can also be used in a gasifier
system to generate electricity. (Bio-mass gasifier generation system)
Team Member: Swapnil Agarwal with his host
family members
Team Member : Madan Sunandan with a pine
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Conclusion
Village Chaukhuta,
Nainital District
Village Simayal,
Nainital District

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THANK YOU

18. Chirag – Central Himalayan Rural Action Group
8 Decentralized teams – “Area Team”
Each Area Team headed by a Coordinator
Total Villages – 150
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