BROKEN LANDSCAPE

In India’s resource-rich Meghalaya State, demand for coal is transforming the environment and the people who depend on it. Coal mine owners are prospering from booming production, but few laws regulate the dangerous and polluting practice known as “rat-hole” mining. Until now- a new government tribunal recently banned all coal mining in the region, effectively shutting down the economy. Mine owners and workers staged protests, while people living downstream try to cope with dead rivers that once provided their livelihoods, food, and drinking water. Meanwhile, the Nepalese migrants who crossed the border to work in the mines are stuck in the middle.