A family in India's Nagaland finds alternate ways to cook food, in photos

KOHIMA, India (AP) — Tovi Murru doesn’t remember exactly when his family started using firewood to cook. “It was sometime in April,” he says.

Housework for him has doubled since. He gathers bits of wood from dead trees in the forest, brings them home and chops them. He also does most of the cooking now. When they still used liquefied petroleum gas to cook, it was his wife Atoshi Ayemi, 27, who ran the kitchen. But cooking on fire is too much work for his wife to manage, he feels.

“The common person is really suffering with the rise of fuel prices. And LPG cylinders are no longer available. The few that are available are unaffordable,” he says.

Murru, 32, a driver by profession, lives with his wife, daughter and two dogs in a house provided by his employer. He muses that if he had to pay rent then it would be hard to survive in the present times. He earns $125 a month. An LPG cylinder, if he is lucky enough to find one, costs almost a quarter of his salary in the black market, more than double what it used to cost before the start of the Iran war.

Murru is dexterous. It took him less than a day to build the hearth. He skillfully starts the fire and boils eggs and some broth that will be eaten with rice. “Azatina loves eggs,” he says, gesturing toward his 3-year-old daughter.

More than 4,000 kilometers (2,500 miles) from Tehran, this tiny town of Kohima also bears the brunt of the Iran war. Like many people, he doesn’t understand why a war that isn’t theirs is affecting everyday life. Murru is a Naga, part of an Indigenous group living in northeastern India and areas of Myanmar.

India imports nearly 90% of its crude oil, so the war hampered vehicles that need gasoline and millions of homes and restaurants that need LPG.

Atoshi’s eyes tear up from the smoke. So do Azatina’s. Tovi says the smoke is bad but “it’s the heat from the fire that gets me,” he says, wiping his brow. Ironically, the family serves their meal by an empty gas cylinder.

Power has been out most evenings. The couple use their mobile phones to find their way around. Tovi scoops dollops of food into his plate. The dogs wait to be fed. It is their turn next.

This is a photo gallery curated by AP photo editors.

Tovi Murru, 32, puts his arms around his pet dog outside his house in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Tovi Murru, 32, eats dinner watched by his dogs inside their kitchen in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Atoshi Ayemi eats dinner with her daughter Azatina Murru inside their kitchen in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Tovi Murru, 32, and his wife Atoshi Ayemi serve food beside an empty liquefied petroleum gas cylinder inside their kitchen in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Azatina Murru, 3, sits with her hand around her pet dog in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Tovi Murru, 32, pets his dog with his daughter Azatina, 3, by his side in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Azatina Murru, 3, eats an egg by the entrance of her home in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Atoshi Ayemi, 27, walks past her daughter Azatina, as she helps with cooking dinner in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Eggs boil on a hearth in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Tovi Murru, 32, blows into the fire to fan the flames, with his daughter Azatina, 3, by his side in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

Tovi Murru, 32, chops wood to cook dinner in Kohima, capital of the northeastern Indian state of Nagaland, Monday, July 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Yirmiyan Arthur)

TOKYO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 8, 2026--

Axelspace Corporation (“Axelspace”), a leading developer and operator of microsatellites dedicated to realizing its vision of “Space within Your Reach,” announced that the seven GRUS-3 next-generation Earth observation microsatellites were successfully launched and that the first radio signals were successfully received.

This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260707291751/en/

GRUS-3 was integrated via Exolaunch and launched aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, USA, on July 7, 2026 at 07:12 (UTC) during the Transporter-17 rideshare mission. The satellites were successfully put into their intended orbit. Axelspace received the first radio signals from all the seven satellites in orbit. The satellites are currently operating normally.

Axelspace is working toward completing the critical operation of the GRUS-3 microsatellite to ensure proper functioning in orbit, in preparation for future services based on Earth observation data acquired by them.

The initial announcement regarding the GRUS-3 can be found here:
Launch Date Confirmed for Seven GRUS-3 Earth Observation Microsatellites
Axelspace Equip Seven GRUS-3 Earth Observation Microsatellites with Nikon Telescopes
Axelspace Announces Launch of Seven GRUS-3 Earth Observation Microsatellites, No Earlier Than July 2026

Note: The development of a versatile satellite bus system for GRUS-3 is based on results obtained through the following projects subsidized by NEDO (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization):
“Development and Demonstration of General-Purpose CubeSat and Microsatellite Buses” (FY2023-2026) *This project was supported by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (FY2021-2022)

About Axelspace

Guided by its vision—“Space within Your Reach”—Axelspace has been at the forefront of microsatellite innovation since its founding in 2008. Leveraging cutting-edge expertise in microsatellite design, manufacturing, and on-orbit operations, the company is redefining how people and industries access space. Its flagship businesses, AxelLiner, which provides satellite development and operation services to help customers realize their space missions, and AxelGlobe, which delivers Earth observation data through Axelspace’s proprietary optical satellite constellation, are driving a new era of space utilization. Through these initiatives, Axelspace is shaping a future where space is accessible and within reach for everyone.

The successful launch of Falcon 9 ©SpaceX