00:05Until recently, Chandni and her family cooked with LPG gas, a cleaner, safer option they
00:10had relied on for years. Now that's no longer possible. With gas cylinders hard to find,
00:15they have been pushed back to cooking on firewood.
00:26Across low-income Delhi neighborhoods, families who shifted to clean up fuel are moving back.
00:31But Chandni, a daily wage laborer with no formal gas connection, the shortage hits hardest.
00:36What we are seeing here is reversal of years of progress. Millions of households in India
00:40had moved to clean up cooking fuel. But now because of global supply disruptions,
00:44many are being pushed back to using firewood, coal and kerosene. And that doesn't just affect
00:49convenience. It has a serious consequence for health and air quality. It's not only homes,
00:54restaurants and small businesses are switching to coal or buying black market gas at inflated prices.
01:01Those using coal declined to speak to us. At the heart of the disruption is the conflict in
01:06Middle East. Shipping routes through the straight-up Hormuz, a key route for global energy supplies,
01:10have been affected. That has tightened LPG supplies reaching India. The government has acted. Commercial
01:16kitchens and restaurants are now allowed to use coal, kerosene and waste-based fuels to save LPG for
01:22households. Alternate fuel options are being activated. It will ease pressure on LPG and gas
01:29channels. Kerosene is being made available through retail outlets. But experts warn the longer this
01:35disruption lasts, the harder it is to reverse. The energy crisis at this moment is really the
01:41turning the clock back. And whatever we progress that we have made to ensure that households have
01:48access to clean cooking energy that is getting deeply and adversely affected. And as a result,
01:55people are falling back on the traditional solid fuels, which is causing enormous pollution and it's
02:02coming to us at enormous public health cost. But for families like Chandni's, she has little choice
02:08but to keep cooking in a smog filled cooking stores. She hopes the shortage is temporary, that soon the gas
02:15cylinder will return, and that firewood can be left behind again.
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