Every morning when Paplamma, the matron in-charge for preparing midday meals for school kids in the tiny village of Bysanivaripalli, sets out for her assignment, she prays for a blazing Sun. Her prayer may be unusual, given the fact that temperature in this part of India hovers between 33 and 42 degree celsius for most part of the year. But Paplamma prays for the bright Sun as her school uses solar cookers for preparing meals for 50 kids in the kitchen under the open sky. Paplamma's worries get particularly heightened during those two months when monsoon clouds cover the South Indian peninsula. But no longer so. She need not worry at all. For, this village of 223 residents has, of late, developed a more durable back-up in biogas plants operated by cow dung.
Welcome to India's first smoke-free village. Bysanivaripalli could have been written off as yet another nondescript village in India. But, since July 2005, this tiny silk rearers' village (situated about 110 km from Chintamani in Kolar district) has emerged as the first smoke-free village in the country. The inhabitants belonging to 36 families heat water or cook their meals on either solar cookers or stoves burning biogas plants. Villagers have stopped the use of fossil fuels and LPG (liquefied petroleum gas). In fact, the village has become a hub of users and enthusiasts of non-conventional energy. Last December, it hosted a conference on renewable energy, attracting activists from Germany, Austria, Sri Lanka and various parts of India.

Today, 36 families of Bysanivaripalli share among themselves 23 biogas plants and 26 solar cookers. It all started in 1986 when a progressive farmer set up a small biogas plant in the backyard of his house, feeding it with cow dung. The village was generating 500 tonnes of cow dung and 50 tonnes of sericulture waste per annum. Seeing the success of the maiden plant, another 22 farmers who owned cattle set up similar plants. The sheer number of biogas plants came as a surprise to Jagadeeswar Reddy, a visiting official of the Non-Conventional Energy Development Corporation of Andhra Pradesh (NEDCAP). Mr Reddy used some motivational skills and persuaded the non-cattle owning families to set up solar cookers some two years ago.

But finances were a major question for these 26 families as most of them were cash-strapped. Each solar cooker cost Rs 6,250. The Union Government provided a subsidy of Rs 2,500 through NEDCAP, the nodal agency for Andhra Pradesh. Mr Reddy's presentation about the experiment at 'Renewable 2004' meet in Germany and a gathering in St Johanne, Austria, brought in funds from several schools and NGOs like Intersol. Each family was provided another Rs 2,750 by Gujarat-based Gadhia Solar Systems which liaised with Intersol. The farmers were asked to pay the remaining Rs 1,000 in small monthly installments.

NEDCAP trained the youth in assembling solar cookers that came from Gujarat and women were provided pressure cookers and dark glasses to wear in order to protect their eyes from the flashback of dazzling glare of the Sun while cooking. Since dinner was to be prepared before 5 pm, the households were also given hay baskets to keep it warm till dinner time late in the evening.

NEDCAP also trained women in baking biscuits and cakes and supplying them to a hostel attached to the nearby Madanapalli Institute of Technology.

Flush with surplus energy, the villagers today have developed supplementary sources of income. A village woman, Pallavi, sells biscuits worth Rs 180 a day, which she bakes over the solar cooker. T Ramaswamy Reddy, the village launderer, heats his traditional iron box on the solar cooker. Subbareddy roasts groundnuts on the solar cooker and sells them at the local market. 

But Jagadeeswar Reddy says, apart from the saving of fossil fuels, benefits also accrue to the environment. The burning of firewood in traditional stoves was releasing over 1,04,000 kg of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. According to NEDCAP's assessment, the villagers save 72 quintals of firewood and 5,800 kg of cooking gas. Besides, the villagers also generate 300 tonnes of organic fertiliser from the residue of the biogas plant. In fact, village barns are now stacked with biomass and twigs from trees which were previously burnt.  

In tune with the villagers' spirit, the nearby Rishi Valley Residential School too has gone totally solar. Meals are cooked for its 400 inmates through steam piped from giant solar heaters installed over the roof. Need for hot water bath too is met from the same heater.

Since it was not feasible for the school to have the kitchen under the open sky, it opted for reflector-based heaters which turn the water into steam which is then piped into the kitchen. The reflectors move automatically with the position of the Sun all through the day and the supply of heat is uninterrupted. 

Encouraged by the success in Bysanivaripalli, NEDCAP has identified another 12 villages to turn them into smoke-free villages.