Can a water heater help reduce deforestation, improve human health and reduce human-wildlife interactions?
GreenHub's Central India Chapter and the Wildlife Conservation Trust (WCT) have come together to tell one such story. ‘Bumbb: A Solution for Climate, Communities and Conservation’ is a film made by GreenHub Fellows, that takes us to Bramhapuri in Central India. Here, villages share boundaries with the forest, people live in proximity with wild animals, and depend on the forest for their daily needs - the most important being that of firewood.
To prevent the degradation of forests due to sustained firewood collection, reduce human-wildlife interactions that ensue from firewood collection visits to the forest, and alleviate the adverse health effects of firewood burning, WCT has provided village households with an energy efficient and environmentally sustainable water heater at an affordable price, by subsidising 75 percent of the cost. This is the story of that heater - the Heater of Hope.
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· As of June 2023, WCT has equipped 5,400 families in the Greater Tadoba Landscape with the water heater.
· An additional 1,000 families have been equipped with the water heater by the Maharashtra Forest Department.
· The NGO Junglescapes has replicated the same model in the Southern Western Ghats, and distributed 2,000 units around the Bandipur Tiger Reserve.
· The use of these 8,400 heaters is leading to firewood savings of at least 8,000 tonnes per year, and a yearly reduction of 12,800 tonnes of CO₂ emissions.
· The number of heaters is growing every fortnight.
Watch the film to know more.
#WildlifeConservation #HumanWildlifeConflict #ForestDegradation #WildlifeConservationTrust
7 окт 2024
