Gas shortages push India’s poor back to wood and coal

It will cause health risks and worsening air quality in highly polluted New Delhi. Read more at straitstimes.com.

NEW DELHI - Soaring black-market prices of cooking gas in India’s capital are pushing poorer families back to wood and coal, raising health risks and worsening air quality in the highly polluted megacity.

India is the world’s second-largest buyer of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), which is used for cooking and predominantly sourced from the Middle East – and supplies have been strangled by the ongoing war.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged states to curb black marketing and avoid panic, stressing that India’s energy supplies remain stable.

In the low-income Madanpur Khadar neighbourhood, 36-year-old domestic helper Sheela Kumari says she has been forced to abandon LPG cooking gas cylinders for cooking after prices more than doubled.

“We used to buy cylinders for 1,800 rupees (S$24.55) – 2,000 rupees, but now on the black market it has gone up to 5,000,” she told AFP, nearly as much as she entire monthly salary of 6,000 rupees.

“It is unimaginable for us,” she said. “The next best option for us was going back to wood and coal.”