Abstract
<title>Abstract</title> <p>India's clean-cooking transition has created access without eliminating vulnerability. The 2026 LPG crisis triggered reverse migration to migrant-origin districts in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, where returning workers reverted to solid-fuel combustion due to unaffordable energy refill costs. Using a district-level bank-deposit migration proxy, solid-fuel prevalence data, and MODIS aerosol optical depth (AOD) at 550 nm, we compare March 2026 against 2024–2025 baselines. High-ratio migrant-origin districts exhibited AOD increases of + 0.270 ± 0.248, exceeding destination districts by 3.2 times; 91.7% versus 68.3% recorded positive change. This finding reveals an environmental justice dimension: poorest regions bore the highest pollution burden. Ventilation-coefficient analysis rules out meteorological confounding. These results expose a structural vulnerability in India's energy transition: policies prioritizing fuel access over supply security leave the poorest households exposed to cascading geopolitical shocks. We call for energy-resilient clean-cooking frameworks addressing both supply security and energy poverty locking households into fuel reversion.</p>