Shale Gas in India: Look Before You Leap

The policy brief explains why the resources that have made the extraction and availability of shale gas in the US a success, are not available to India. Apart from extraction technology, land and other factors, the single biggest handicap is the very large quantity of water that is required to "frack" the underground rocks that contain the gas. India is a water-stressed country, and is fast approaching water scarcity conditions. India cannot further endanger a rapidly depleting resource on which all life depends. The authors point to seven different avenues to secure our gas requirements, some of which are in hand but which need to be augmented and expanded.