Articles by Gurvinder Singh

Abha Toppo resides in Hatighisa village in Darjeeling district of North Bengal, around 20 kilometres from Siliguri city, the gateway to northeast India. Her village is a few metres away from…

Shilpa Gayen shudders to recall the moment when she almost lost her life after strong winds blowing in her village brought down her mud house on May 26, the day…

The Piparwar opencast mine in Jharkhand was once the largest coal-producing mine in the state and had damaged the local ecology. Now, after about 30 years of mining operations being…

Ram Shankar Sahni, a 45-year-old fisherman at Kabar Taal, a lake in Begusarai district of Bihar, is quite happy with the situation of the wetland this year. Usually, it has…

Jamir Ali runs a tea-stall at Paschim Rajbati village, four kilometres from the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport on the outskirts of the eastern Indian metropolis of Kolkata. A…

Seventy-year-old Raj Kumar Yadav suffers from breathlessness and was admitted to a hospital twice in three months. He often wakes up in the dead of night spending hours coughing and…

Plastic waste associated with relief material, used in the aftermath of Cyclone Amphan in the Sundarbans, could cause damage to the eco-sensitive region, say environmentalists. In June, following the Cyclone…

Umesh Kumar is a young farmer at Pithra village in Simdega district in Jharkhand, a picturesque village surrounded by hills and green forest cover. The 26-year-old owns around 12 acres…

Md. Ziaul Ahmed has fearful memories of howling winds blowing away tin-covers of houses when cyclone Amphan hit the eastern coast of India on May 20. The 35-year-old who lives…

Sukhdeb Mandy is a sap tapper at Aambera village in Bankura district of West Bengal. The 28-year-old collects sap from date palm trees during the winter season. During the rest…

Prinson Daimari is overwhelmed with pride every time he visits the lush green forest with birds’ nests perched on the treetops inside the Bhairabkunda reserve forest in Udalguri district of…

Jamini Mohan Mahanty is out for a morning walk every day. At 91, he is hale and hearty. A resident of Jharbagda village in Purulia district, West Bengal, Mahanty thanks…

Broken nails are possibly the least of all the horrors of mica scavenging in and around abandoned mines in the eastern Indian province of Jharkhand. Exploitative child labour, death by…

Sahadev Ram and his family of 10 barely escaped with their lives when their house in Niluri Pathra Balurgada village suddenly collapsed without any warning six months ago. Although a…

Bishnu Rai gets emotional every time he tries to speak about his home. Especially since he’s on the verge of losing it. Thirty-one-year old Rai lives on a hilltop in…

Like many tea drinkers across the country who can’t imagine life without their favourite cuppa, Debasree Majumder’s day starts and ends with her staple Darjeeling tea. “I have four cups…

The picturesque Ajodhya hills of Purulia district in West Bengal are turning into a backdrop for a power struggle. Quite literally. Ajodhya hills, located in the easternmost part of the…

The weather is sultry and the temperature is scorching at Raipur locality in Jadavpur, off south Kolkata. The furnace-like conditions have forced residents to stay indoors. But Meena Nag is…

Hatjalhing Lhanghal resides in Khochijang village of Manipur, around 60 kilometers from the state capital Imphal. Khochijang is a remote village in Tuibuong block of Churchandrapur district, surrounded by mountains…

Forty-year-old Thoi has been selling different varieties of rice inside the historic Ima Keithel all-women market in Imphal, the capital city of India’s north-east state of Manipur, for the past…