INTRODUCTION

Mountain regions are unique in terms of their landscape, climate, vegetation, economic activities and socio–cultural aspects. The mountain inhabitants are traditionally dependent on natural resources for their livelihood. Development in these regions historically neglected the diversity and heterogeneity of their ecosystems [1]. As a consequence of the landscape changes due to natural and anthropogenic influences the ecological integrity and resource sustenance are under serious threat. Clearance of forest resources for fuel wood, fodder, timber, industrial products and agriculture has ensued in forest fragmentation resulting in human–animal conflicts and scarcity of resources. Even though governmental regulations restrict illegal felling of forest trees, this process continue rampantly depleting forest cover, degrading soil fertility, eroding top productive soil layer and flooding the plains [2].

The holistic and sustainable development of mountain regions is essentially linked to the management of natural resources and improvements in the conversion and end use of energy through viable eco–friendly alternate technologies. Bioenergy from combustion of bioresources like fuel wood (including dry litter of leaves, twigs etc), agro residues (stalk, straw, cobs, husk, bagasse etc.) and animal residues has been a traditional predominant energy source for heating and cooking in the mountainous rural energy system. Trees grown on agricultural margins and forests are the major source of fuel wood. It is observed that more than 70% of the total energy consumption of Western Himalayan mountain regions is met by traditional sources of which nearly 60% is fuel wood. Over 90% of this fuel wood is consumed in households for heating and cooking [3]. Agro residues classified as field–based residues (straw, stalk, cobs etc) are used sparingly as fuel apart from fodder and mulch while process–based residues (rice husk, sugarcane bagasse, etc) are usually discarded. Scarcity of fuel wood in recent times has forced people to depend more on agro residues for domestic heating and cooking needs, leaving the crop lands unfertile. This subsequently has affected the crop yield resulting in further clearance of forests for cultivation. Apart from these, forced dependence on pine cones, tree bark and weeds with high ash content and low heating values has increased indoor pollution affecting especially women and children [4]. Livestock is the major source for manure, dairy, meat and draught. Due to the scarcity of fuel wood, rich dried dung–cake as alternative fuel deprives agriculture field of nutrients apart from causing pollution on direct burning. Stoves used for burning in mountain areas vary with altitude and most of them are traditional devices with low thermal efficiency [5]. Transition to commercial energy sources like kerosene and LPG at subsidized rates is noticed in urbanizing landscapes, although there are logistic and economic constraints in supply [3]. Thus, the alternative bioresources as well as commercial sources fail to reduce the burden on forest cover.

Energy demand and supply dynamics in mountain regions are complex due to the spatial variations in availability and accessibility of resources and their differing usage along altitudinal gradients. This complexity demands detailed studies for improving the regional energy system [2]. Reducing inefficient use of fuel wood and encouraging conservative use of alternative bioresources in meeting the energy demand ensures ecological sustainability. This necessitates the assessment of bioenergy availability (supply) and consumption (demand) to identify the bioenergy surplus or deficit status of mountain regions for efficient, integrated and sustainable resource planning.

Resource planning at aggregate level neglects the regional paucity of resources and the crisis faced by the inhabitants in meeting their domestic energy demands without feasible alternatives. Regional information on energy resources and patterns of human dependence is vital for efficient planning. The basis of regional integrated energy planning is the preparation of area based decentralized energy system to meet the subsistence and development needs at the least cost to the environment and economy. This considers all the socioeconomic and ecological factors of a region essential for long term success of the intervention. Decision making involves data compilation, analysis and visualization of various scenarios. In this context, regional energy plan through a Decision Support System (DSS) provides an interactive user friendly platform with options to compile, analyze, interpret and visualize the information. DSS essentially consists of database, modeling and dialogue management subsystems [6]. BEPA  (Bioeneergy Potential assessment) – A DSS designed for bioresource assessment accounts for the bioenergy availability to demand status of realistic scenarios in the regional level. It facilitates the collection and analysis of available information, the projection of future conditions and the evaluation of alternative energy solutions for conservative resource planning [7]. DSS based bioenergy resource assessment and planning has been proposed in many regions [8, 9, 10, 11]. Regional bioenergy planning and execution through DSS potentially resolves the energy and environmental issues faced by the mountain regions.

The present study assesses bioenergy resource status of three representative mountainous districts in the federal state of Himachal Pradesh located in Western Himalayas. This includes the causal factors for degradation of resources, levels of forest fragmentation etc.

Objectives: Main objectives of this study are

• quantification of bioresources availability,
• demand assessment,
• assessment of levels of degradation through forest fragmentation analysis; and
• visualization of levels of degradation