Petroleum products are the most widely used sources of energy and their indiscriminate exploitation is a cause for major concern. The State Forest and Wildlife Minister Dinesh Aggarwal said this at a programme organised as part of the oil and gas conservation fortnight at the Indian Institute of Petroleum here on Friday.
Addressing the gathering, the minister said that India remained comparatively unaffected by the global fiscal slump mainly due to the Indians’ habit of saving. He said, “The desired benefit of the conservation fortnight will be achieved by making everyone aware of the value of petroleum products. People need to be habituated to some regulations in order to ensure oil conservation.Presently in India the energy is sourced from coal, crude oil, natural gas, hydro electricity and nuclear power,” said Aggarwal. Appreciating the odd-even numbered vehicle system tried in Delhi, the minister said that such experiments need to be tried across the nation. Referring to use of cycles, the minister said that the practice of cycling doesn’t only help conserve fossil fuel but also has a positive impact on the cyclists’ health without the pollution generated by vehicles powered by fossil fuels. Aggarwal said that Uttarakhand has among the best scope for hydro power generation in the world.
Speaking on the occasion, the IIP director Dr MO Garg said that in the present context, the aspects of energy and the environment have become all the more important with increase in greenhouse gas emissions increasing the imbalance in environment. Garg said, “The present scenario makes it important not only to increase efficiency in utilisation of energy but also to minimise the use of energy. We need to accord more importance to oil and natural gas conservation and also prepare an energy efficiency market in India. However, first we must clearly understand the need for energy efficiency in the country. The global crude oil quantity is limited. Though there has been some drop in the price of crude oil in recent times, there has been a drastic increase in its utilisation at the global level,” added Garg. Representatives of oil companies, officials and school students were also among those present on the occasion.