Jharia village in India is like a hellish scene from a demonic horror movie: it is perpetually wreathed in suffocating smoke from an underground fire that has been slowly burning for 100 years. Jharia’s coal fields represent the country’s richest reserves but the people forced to live here remain steeped in poverty. For many, pilfering and selling small basketfuls of coal from the quarry is the only opportunity to make a meagre living. Whole families, including little children, labour in dangerous and harmful conditions.
Living here is very risky: the ever-spreading pit of fire frequently consumes whole houses and blasting regularly shakes the whole village, damaging buildings and throwing plumes of coal dust into the air. High levels of carbon monoxide cause severe respiratory complaints among residents. Despite the danger, most families dare not relocate because coal provides their only means of income.
Inferno Village
