Telangana’s 60% firewood claim needs more than smoke
An older government review documented widespread firewood use in Telangana schools. The current headline figures remain unverified, and the arithmetic is already wandering.
The available records do not establish the reported share of Telangana schools using firewood.
A claim that roughly 60% of Telangana schools still cook with firewood is not independently established by the available record. The figures—26,147 schools and 9,939 LPG connections—come from a single report whose underlying department data, school categories and date are not published. The arithmetic also does not quite cooperate: 9,939 is 38.01% of 26,147, not 38.45%. That leaves 16,208 schools without a recorded LPG connection, but not proof that all of them use firewood. Some may use centralised kitchens or other fuels.
The concern is not invented. A Union government Joint Review Mission report based on Telangana field visits found that only 36% of schools visited had LPG and that most used firewood. It also recorded smoke, open-area cooking and a lack of fire extinguishers. A 2019–20 Telangana PM POSHAN document separately identified LPG provision and funding as implementation problems.
The current Union portal lists 26,001 Telangana schools, not 26,147. Until the School Education Department publishes the denominator, fuel-wise data and the alleged January 6, 2026 instruction to collectors, the 60% figure is a report, not a finding. Telangana’s school kitchens deserve cleaner fuel; the paperwork deserves cleaner numbers first.