Video of a man standing outside a shuttered gas agency in Uttar Pradesh‘s Barabanki is going viral. At 3 am on a dark, silent he stood alone, waiting for the shop to open.

When asked what he was doing there in the dead of night, his answer defined India’s LPG crisis.

“I took a day’s leave. I am coming from Shajahanpur and travelled 200 kilometres to my hometown in Barakanki to get an LPG cyliner.” he said in a viral video shared on X (formerly known as Twitter)

The video defines the gut-wrenching reality of India’s ongoing LPG crisis. A crisis born not from domestic mismanagement alone, but from a geopolitical storm thousands of kilometres away in the Strait of Hormuz.

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The man reached the gas agency well before dawn, hoping that being first in line might help him get a cylinder to cook food for his bed-ridden parenst.

In the video, he shared he works as a supervisor in Shajahanpur and got only a one-day leave to get the cylinder. He shared his father has cancer and his mother had a brain haemorrhage.

His situation captures the quiet, invisible toll of the LPG shortage that has swept across India in March 2026. For millions of working Indians who live away from their families. The crisis has led to many losing a day’s wages, travelling hundreds of kilometres, and still have no guarantee that a cylinder will be available.

India’s LPG Crisis: How the Strait of Hormuz Choked 33 Crore Indian Kitchens

The LPG shortage gripping India since early March 2026 is a direct consequence of the escalating conflict in West Asia. The Strait of Hormuz — a narrow waterway through which roughly 90 per cent of India’s LPG imports once passed — has been effectively closed to commercial shipping since the US-Israel joint offensive against Iran disrupted the region.

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India imports approximately 60 per cent of its total LPG requirement. With the Hormuz corridor shut, about 54 per cent of the country’s normal LPG availability has come under direct threat, according to an analysis by the Observer Research Foundation.

3 AM Queues: A Pattern Across India

In Navi Mumbai’s Sanpada, residents were seen lining up at 3 am in the second week of March. A video even featured a woman sleeping on the floor, while waiting in line to get a cylinder at around 11pm.

The images from these towns and cities have fuelled political anger, with opposition parties in states heading to polls — Tamil Nadu, Kerala, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry — seizing on the crisis as campaign ammunition.

India’s LPG crisis is expected to ease soon as two relief tankers — Nanda Devi and Shivalik — carrying over 92,000 metric tonnes of LPG recently crossed the Hormuz corridor under naval escort. Diversified sourcing from the US, Norway, Canada, and Russia is being scaled up. Domestic refinery output continues to be maximised.