Shivaji Kaganikar, an activist, shows the outlet pipe of the Gobar gas power plant in Kattanbavi village of Belagavi district. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT
Households across the country may be feeling the heat from the lack of domestic bottles. But residents of Kattanbavi, a small village near Belagavi, need not fear. Most of the houses in this village of around 1200 people have a gobar gas plant. They were founded 30-35 years ago, but they are still working.
“I think there are about 300 houses in the village and 80 percent of them have gobar gas,” explained Rahul Kande, a resident. The villagers refer to the gobar gas units as ‘Deena Bandhu’ units. These units had many benefits – they provided fuel for cooking and lighting, cow dung effluent, cow slurry and village manure increased as fertilizer.
“We keep reading about shortage of LPG cylinders in Belagavi and Hukkeri. But we are not worried. Few people here have cylinders,” says Bhairavnath Kothekar.
Kattanbavi lies at a distance of about 20 km from the district headquarters and 4 km from the Maharashtra border. Most of its inhabitants are farmers or sheep breeders. Most of the houses have cows, buffaloes and sheep. Animal waste and human waste are fed to the gobar gasworks through underground pipelines, untouched by human hands. Over time, the size of gobar gas units has decreased and can be placed in an area of less than a square meter in the backyard.
The units were introduced by members of NGOs Jana Jagarana Samsthe and Khadi Gram Abhivruddhi Sangha, which have been working in Kattanbavi and surrounding villages since 1990.
Shivaji Kaganikar, a 76-year-old Devraj Urs awardee, spearheaded the initiative through volunteers. “We had to convince at least about 20,000 farmers across Belagavi district to build gas-fired gobar gas plants,” he says, adding, “We used to focus on gas-fired gobar power plants. But in recent years, as technology has evolved, farmers have built gas-fired gobar power plants that take inputs from toilets.” Most of the old and new plants are in Belagavi, Hukkeri and Khanapur taluks.
Mr. Kaganikar, who hails from a nearby village, came to Kattanbavi in 1990 to run a preschool. “At that time, villagers were cutting trees for firewood. I was worried about it. Late Srirang Kamath, freedom fighter and founder of KGAS, introduced me to gobar gas units. SK Desai Kadolikar sent me to Nashik for training in construction and maintenance of gobar gas units. Armed with this knowledge, I started spreading awareness that every house was using my friends and started cutting trees and using gas instead. going to every house.With the financial help of Janajagaran Sanstha, cow dung making units were installed in all houses where cattle were kept, which encouraged some others to start cattle rearing,” he said.
In the beginning, there was little awareness of this technology. It was also felt that the units were only for big farmers. “We fought hard to change that mindset. Now the village is almost self-sufficient in terms of fuel,” he said.
Mr. Kothekar said that earlier his family had 5-6 cows and buffaloes. But now we have only one cow but our gobar gas plant is still running, he said. His brother Maruti, who started a new unit a few months back, spent around ₹25,000 on it. He connected his toilet to the unit.
Mallavva Pavale, a home handyman, said the unit is easy to maintain. “We put a bucket of manure in the morning and another in the evening. There’s no need to do anything else,” she said.
Published – 28 March 2026 19:48 IST
