State’s success with solar energy makes villagers aspire for more (India)

State’s success with solar energy makes villagers aspire for more

Electricity grid poles are prohibited inside India’s national parks and sanctuaries, leaving about four million people across the country in the dark

Maitreyee Handique

Not so long ago, the 300 people in this sleepy village inside Barnawapara wildlife sanctuary spent evenings in virtual darkness. Children went to bed early and women made dinner before sundown. With no electricity, they had no other option.

In 2004, the installation of a solar power station radically changed the rhythm of rural life. Vishu Sahu’s two children, Shoma, 11, and Bhupendra, 10, now do their homework on the veranda, illuminated by a fluorescent light fixed high on the wall, as their mother prepares dinner in a small kitchen a few metres away.

His neighbour, Shyam Bai, wife of a forest guard, has put together her family savings to invest in a black-and-white television set, running off a solar panel she bought for Rs6,000 with government subsidy. Sahu, who runs a small shop, owns a wireless telephone too, powered by a solar battery box.

Electricity grid poles are prohibited inside India’s national parks and sanctuaries, leaving about four million people across the country in the dark. When electricity came to Mahasamund district on the Orissa border, this village and 20 others within the 224 sq. km wooded sanctuary could have no part of it.

Now the success of solar energy in Rawaan, 85 km from state capital Raipur, is being seen as one way the seven-year-old state carved out of south-eastern Madhya Pradesh can reach its goal of turning the lights on in over thousand villages located inside the state’s 13 wildlife sanctuaries and national parks.

...