6.1. Management aspects of energy planning

The current approach to planning in the energy sector does not offer any significant role to the district or local level institutions. Moreover, the coordination needed between the energy sector and the overall planning and development at district, taluk and village levels is missing. Although forestry planning is carried out by the district forest department, its most significant aspect pertaining to energy is extremely weak and receives very little attention in the planning exercises of the sector. The biomass situation in hilly taluks has, therefore,gradually worsened and has reached a point of crisis [47]. This deteriorating situation obviously demands immediate attention in two directions:

(1) Strengthening of local institutions for energy development.

(2) Promotion of coordination between institutions concerned with the energy development and overall planning at different hierarchical levels on the one hand and between institutions concerned with research and development on the other.