Kanuga fails to fuel bio-diesel dreams

Hyderabad: Attempts to promote kanuga, or Pongamia pinnata, as a bio-diesel resource has proven to be a flop.

Before bifurcation of the state, nearly a lakh Pongamia pinnata trees were planted across Telangana and AP to extract oil and make bio-diesel.

Pongamia was widely promoted by the government and many research papers were published. Now, there are 11,000 hectares under Pongamia.

A senior official from the Telangana forest department said Pongamia had proven to be commercially unviable.

“We have many Pongamia saplings in plantations but they are purely for greening purposes,” he said.

Although the tree can survive drought, it needs a good supply of water for producing seeds. Due to this a large number of trees were planted along canals and streams but most of these trees have not flowered yet. An official of the AP forest department also confirmed this.

If the state is serious about growing the tree for bio-diesel it should invest in research to bring down the maturity period of it to 5-10 years instead of twenty years, he said.

“The volume of research going on at the three research institutions of the forest departments is next to nil due to poor funding,” the official said.