Plead, hoard, steal: the desperate scramble for cooking gas in India

2026-03-18 - 02:42

The smoke rising from Babitha Sivadasan’s kitchen in rural Kerala carries a scent that belongs to her grandmother’s era. “I have started cooking with firewood,” said Babitha, who began rationing her half-empty cooking gas cylinder after failing to secure a refill from her Indian Oil distributor. “The agency hasn’t taken bookings in a week.” As the Iran war enters the third week and cooking gas becomes scarce amid a conflict-driven supply shock, some Indian homemakers are turning to practices of...