Hassan: Declared a smokeless village on Sunday, Hoovinahalli in Channarayapatna taluk of Hassan, has become the first hamlet in the state or perhaps even in the country to depend almost entirely on biogas units run on renewable resources like cow dung and the deoiled cake of bio-fuel seeds.

The ceremony to declare it a smokeless village was held in the presence of representatives of the World Agro Forestry Centre in Nairobi, Kenya which has sponsored the units along with the Zilla Panchayat of Hassan.

While Biofuel Park officials from Madenur have helped 34 families in the village install the new biogas units, five other families have been using such units for a while now, according to Mr Balakrishna Gowda, Project Coordinator, Biofuel Park, Madenur.

Although the remaining six families, who are using LPG cylinders for cooking, are also keen on switching to biogas, they did not have enough room to install them in their homes, he explains.

Mr Raghu of Biofuel Park says the biogas units last longer than gobar gas units and their slurry, which is rich in nutrients, can be used as manure in the fields. “It is also pollution- free cooking,” he notes.

A local farmer, Babu, says he plans to use his LPG cylinder very rarely now that a biogas unit has been installed in his home. “We will use LPG only if needed,” he adds, happy to have an efficient, cost effective alternative to fall back on.