Rural energy needs of India and role of women in developing alternative sources of energy: a case study. Annapurna Rathore, Santosh Sharma, and Ashwini Kumar New Generation Development and Globilization Foundation, 2-Kha-14, Sector-2, Jawaharnagar, Jaipur, 302004. India. Email: ngdgf_nature@yahoo.com The changing scenerio of the rural energy needs and the role of women in developing alternative sources of energy has not been worked out for the semi-arid and arid regions of India. The present paper will describe the role of women in the developmen t of alternative sources of energy. With dwindling forest resources the women have to travel lot more distance to collect wood or biomass for energy needs. Women can play considerable role in conservation of forest resources if they are trained in alternative sources of energy use. A d etailed study on these aspect is in progress and valuable findings shall be presented at the conference.