An evaluation of fuelwood properties of some Aravally mountain tree and shrub species of Western India J.I. Nirmal Kumar a, *, Kanti Patel a , Rita N. Kumar b , Rohit Kumar Bhoi a a P.G. Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Institute of Science and Technology for Advanced Studies and Research (ISTAR), Vallabh Vidyanagar 388 120, Gujarat, India b Department of Biological and Environmental Science, N.V. Patel college of Pure and Applied Sciences, Vallabh Vidyanagar 388 120, Gujarat, India article info Article history: Received 1 June 2009 Received in revised form 6 August 2010 Accepted 20 August 2010 Available online 15 September 2010 Keywords: Fuelwood Calorific value Wood density Fuelwood value index Aravally region abstract The study analyses the fuelwood characteristics of 26 trees including shrub species from the dry deciduous forest in Aravally region, Rajasthan, Western India was carried out to explore trees with potential for fuelwood production. Fuelwood value index (FVI) based on the properties of calorific value, wood density and ash. Calorific value was ranged between 18.54  0.04 and 27.44  0.09 KJ g 1 in Jatropha curcus and Wrightia tinctoria respectively. Wood density varied from 0.538  0.01 to 0.966  0.07 g/cm 3 in J. curcus and Acacia nilotica. Same way ash and moisture content was highest in J. curcus (3.38  0.19%) and Sterculia urens (70.28  7.52%) and lowest in Miliusa tomentosa (0.85  0.06%) and Azadirachta indica (30.7  10.02%) respectively. On the basis, of the 26 species analyzed, M. tomentosa has the highest FVI, followed by Lannea coromandelica, Acacia leucophloea, Madhuca indica, A. nilotica, W. tinctoria, Butea monosperma, Zizyphus nummularia, S. urens, Boswellia serrata, A. indica, Grewia tenax, Syzygium cuminii, Tectona grandis and Dalbergia sissoo were shown to have promising fuelwood production. ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction In the third-world countries, the majority of the population lives in the rural areas where fuelwood, charcoal, crop resi- dues and animal wastes provide most of the energy requirement. In Indian mountain villages fuelwood is the only main source of energy, supplying almost all of the cooking energy requirement [1]. In India, about 70% of energy requirement is by the fuelwood, collected from the forests and nearby sites and about 50 million tons of wood are removed every year. The Aravally hill region is not exception, where people have dependent heavily upon plant resources for meeting their energy needs in addition to various other requirement like Major and Minor Forest Produce [2]. In Aravally region, the tribal dependence on forest for fuelwood, as a primary source of energy, coupled with shifting cultivation is causing serious deforestation in this region to a great extent [3], which necessitates the raising of energy plantation in unused lands and wasteland of the region. Commercial fuel is beyond the reach of the tribal communi- ties due to their poor socio-economic conditions [4]. Due to an ever increasing population, fuelwood consumption is increasing rapidly. The average fuelwood consumption is significantly high (5.9e6.4 kg/day/capita) for Aravally region as compared to other parts of India [5,6]. This level of fuelwood consumption has resulted in over exploitation of natural resources; consequently, the region is experiencing scarcity of fuelwood. To overcome the problems, * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ91 (0)9825968242. E-mail address: istares2005@yahoo.com (J.I. Nirmal Kumar). URL: http://www.environmentalscience.co.in Available at www.sciencedirect.com http://www.elsevier.com/locate/biombioe biomass and bioenergy 35 (2011) 411 e414 0961-9534/$ e see front matter ª 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.biombioe.2010.08.051