When the World Ran Out of Gas, These Kitchens Did Not
Imagine waking up one morning, turning the knob of your gas stove, and hearing — nothing. No flame. No hiss. Just silence. This is not a scene from a film. This is what thousands of hotels, restaurants, and small eateries in Bengaluru experienced in March 2026, when a war being fought thousands of kilometres away in West Asia quietly walked into Indian kitchens.
The conflict between the United States, Israel, and Iran choked the Strait of Hormuz — a narrow sea passage through which nearly one-fifth of the world's oil and gas travels. India depends on this single waterway for over 90 percent of its LPG imports. When the Strait was effectively blocked from March 1, LPG shipments to India slowed dramatically. The flame under Bengaluru's stoves flickered dangerously low.
Karnataka felt this almost overnight. On March 9, 2026, the State government capped commercial LPG supply at just 7,000 cylinders per day — with only 1,000 reserved for hotels, restaurants, and dhabas. To put that in context: Bengaluru alone has nearly 25,000 eating establishments. Menus shrank. Breakfast counters shut. Small eateries that were already struggling with a ₹115 hike in cylinder prices were forced to reduce operations or close entirely. The Bruhat Bengaluru Hoteliers' Association estimated losses of ₹150 crore in just three weeks.
But while most kitchens scrambled desperately for cylinders, two kitchens in Bengaluru never even noticed the shortage. Their secret? They had stopped depending on LPG years ago.
Konarak: The Kitchen That Feeds Itself
Konarak Hotels has been a landmark in Bengaluru's vegetarian dining world for over four decades. Its Residency Road and Kasturba Road outlets are popular, busy, and deeply loved. And when the LPG crisis hit, both kitchens kept cooking — without a single imported gas cylinder.
How? Four years ago, Konarak partnered with Carbon Age, a Bengaluru-based clean energy start-up, and installed a compact biogas plant right within its premises. The idea is beautifully simple. Every kitchen generates waste — vegetable peels, leftover food, scraps. Instead of throwing this waste away, Konarak feeds it into a digester. Bacteria inside the digester break down this organic waste and release methane-rich gas — the same gas that burns on your stove. This gas is then purified through scrubbers and compressed into cylinders, ready for use.
"It burns just like LPG," says Managing Director K. Ramamurthy. "We didn't have to change our burners at all. It's cheaper, cleaner, and always available."
That last part — always available — is what made all the difference during the crisis. While competitors were rationing meals and turning away customers, Konarak's chefs cooked normally, served fully, and lost nothing.
There is another beautiful detail here. After the gas is extracted, what remains is a thick, nutrient-rich liquid called digestate or slurry. Konarak sends this to nearby farms, where it works as high-quality organic manure. So the same tomatoes and vegetables that arrive in Konarak's kitchen may one day grow better because of the waste that kitchen produced. It is a complete circle — waste becomes gas, gas cooks food, leftover slurry grows more food.
This is not just smart business. It is a model that any hotel, hostel, temple kitchen, or large canteen can replicate.
Adamya Chetana: Feeding 2 Lakh Children Without LPG
If Konarak's model is impressive, what Adamya Chetana Foundation does is nothing short of extraordinary.
Founded by the late Union Minister Ananth Kumar and now led by Tejaswini Ananth Kumar, Adamya Chetana runs one of India's largest community kitchens in Basavanagudi, Bengaluru. Every single day, this kitchen cooks and distributes nearly two lakh mid-day meals to children in government schools across the city under the Akshara Dasoha programme.
In 2016, long before anyone was talking about energy crises, Adamya Chetana had already begun its journey away from LPG. In partnership with the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Bangalore Bio Innovation Centre, and the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the foundation installed an advanced bio-methanation and solar hybrid system. This plant processes around 1.5 tonnes of food and vegetable waste every day. The methane generated is purified, stored, and piped directly to industrial burners that cook rice, sambar, and vegetables for lakhs of young children.
The numbers are staggering. The plant generates 130 to 140 cubic metres of biogas daily — equivalent to replacing 150 commercial LPG cylinders every month. This saves between ₹90,000 to ₹1 lakh monthly. It also prevents over 30 tonnes of carbon emissions every year.
Today, over two million meals have been cooked using biogas at this single kitchen. The foundation has also installed a solar-steam system for boiling water. The result: the entire kitchen runs completely free of LPG and diesel.
"We cannot depend on imported fuel every time a global crisis breaks out," says Tejaswini Kumar. "Waste and sunlight are free — that is where our energy security lies."
The Lesson Every City Needs to Hear
India consumes around 31 million tonnes of LPG every year. Domestic production meets less than half of that. Every conflict in West Asia, every blocked shipping lane, every drone strike near a refinery — all of it directly hits Indian kitchens. That is the fragile reality we live in.
But Konarak and Adamya Chetana have proved something important: we do not have to live this way. Our own kitchen waste, our own sunlight, our own ingenuity — these are enough to keep the flame burning, even when the world goes dark.
When the next crisis hits, the kitchens that planned ahead will keep cooking. The rest will wait in line for a cylinder that may never arrive.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
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Six arrested in Bengaluru drug racket; narcotics worth Rs 20 crore seized
Bengaluru: Six persons have been arrested for allegedly procuring banned narcotic substances at low prices and selling them for profit, with college students among the buyers, police said on Tuesday.
Police seized 8 kg 58 g of MDMA, 5 kg 700 g of hydro ganja, four mobile phones, and a car used to transport the drugs. The total value of the seized items is estimated at Rs 10.05 crore, while the market value is around Rs 20.10 crore, The Times of India reported.
The arrests followed searches carried out at various locations based on specific intelligence inputs.
Police said information had been received about the sale of banned drugs, including MDMA and hydro ganja, within the limits of Yeshwanthpur and Nandini Layout police stations.
“During these operations, six individuals were detained on different dates, two from other states and four locals,” a statement issued by the office of City Police Commissioner Seemant Kumar Singh said.
“Upon interrogation, the accused confessed that they were purchasing banned drugs such as MDMA and hydro ganja at low prices from unknown inter-state and local suppliers and selling them to the public, with college students among the buyers, for profit,” the statement added.
Police said efforts are underway to identify and trace the suppliers involved in the network.
All six accused have been produced before a court on different dates and remanded to judicial custody, police said.
