Mr. Lovato Tumblog

Scavenging to Survive in India’s Belt of Fire

The villagers set out from this shattered hamlet long before dawn, walking without flashlights on trails they can navigate without looking. They pass small mountains of mining slag that, in the darkness, are just blurry silhouettes. They weave barefoot through brush. When the trail reaches a dirt road, they descend into the open pit of a coal mine. Then, as the night sky starts turning to gray, they begin hacking coal from an exposed black seam. A few hours later the scavengers return to their villages, their baskets filled with stolen coal. See the pictures in this set to get a glimpse of the ragged existence of thousands above the fires (22 images total). —via sacbee.com’s The Frame photo blog