Land scrapes – A photo essay
India has more than a billion people and we have very little land area to support such a large population. This, therefore, does not leave much room for free land or wildnerness areas and every part of the country is used for production or extraction. Most fertile lands are used for agriculture which is the lifeline of the country. Everything else is used for something or the other. Where there are rocks, we quarry granite; where there are minerals in the soil, it is dug and blasted; and where there is neither of these, we modify the remnant natural landscapes to make them more ‘productive’. Here is a bird’s eye view of our Deccan plateau. This is a broader horizon and a larger picture of the state of our land, which we seldom see from eye-level. Land scrapes »
Land scrapes – a photo essay
So hard hitting and wonderful pics..its scary to see how this form of land grabbing is taking away our lives..
Hey.. this is amazing.. How did u fly..? Chopper…? great pictures and good sense of humor.. !
Great post! I have not seen all the damage that quarrying has done but it surely has transformed the face of Hyderabad. They’ve totally destroyed the landscape there. Planting Eucalyptus in arid areas is such bad decision-making. Our vision of growth and development is so short term.
I also noticed during my visit to India last year that all the river beds are drying up and people are moving in and occupying these areas for agriculture and animal-rearing. I was appalled by the extent of the transformation.
Great essay! Nice view from above, we never know these from ground level. Informative too!
That’s a nice informative photo essay.
Just today I was pondering over the depleting rain forests of South being converted to Tea Estates. Pretty and green as they may seem, the natural bounty of the forests are gone forever!
Kalyan , truly the best of your works that I have seen till date. Abandoned quarrys I keep seeing around Pune . one such quarry (near snake park Nigdi Pune) which was water filled with an Island in the middle attracted common waterbirds has been converted into a bird park by PCMC. Only now there are no birds there.
Some wiseman from PCMC erected a large concrete eagle on the rock island and as a part of the beautification drive uprooted all the acacia shrubs to plant an artificial garden which was the final assault on poor natute which was trying to crawl back in the quarry area.everyday I drive past these sites but things just went on ,never gave a second thought only today I really realised what we all miss.Sometimes we mess up more in trying to do good. I,ll try to get a Photo of the bird park for you. ( Angles may not be good as yours. I am a lowly earthling so I,ll have to shoot from my level)
Ah! This is groundbreaking! I haven’t seen anything like this from Indian land. Yann Arthus-Bertrand would jump with joy. Even he/his team didn’t get any shots like this from India in their film HOME! This is an exceptional work Kalyan. Kudos to your effort. Please throw some light on how did you make it. Any ‘making/behind the scene’ images? But again, this is amazing work…Take a bow… ^^
An interesting change from your usual genre of photography. Some of them remind me of the work of Jan Arthus Bertrand.
Well done.
Awesome, informative essay in images! The chopper shots have provided a POV that shows the real story with a strong impact. Loved it… one of your best essays!!
Fantastic and eye opening photo essay! Reminds of the feeling I get when I see articles in the “Big Picture” from the Boston Globe (http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/) – powerful and hard-hitting and very relevant. These images convey a lot compared to a purely text news article. I hope this work gets disseminated and helps brings about change! Thank you!
Great Work – in photographs as well as in essence. I had never thought that a ‘photo’ essay can be so powerful in conveying the message. Thank you for doing so. 🙂
Of your efforts, this I think is by far my favorite and most thought provoking. It really makes one think but I don’t know what it takes to catch the attention of our politicians for whom all this is just a waste of time – a pastime for people like us who have far too much time to waste. Environment conservation ? What on earth is that ? Or wildlife conservation – something that is even less important for the babus who could do something and/or the politicians.
hey kalyan,
its a beautiful and thoughtful essay. I loved the flow and the statements.
curious me wants to know, how did you get these angles?? a chopper??
cheers on all the inspiring work,
~ window siller 🙂
Wonderful and heartbreaking! What can we do, i wonder?!! How do you satisfy a billion peoples hunger for better life..
Riveting photos – did you use kite areal photo technique?
I agree, Kalyan, that mining has to be banned from critically sensitive wildlife areas. I guess the first need would be to define such areas. Would biodiversity be a good parameter for this ? The flip side of the coin is that we should also be prepared to sacrifice lands that do not qualify as critical wildlife areas in the name of material progress. The trick will be to avoid ambiguity and self-interest in the definition of such areas.
Hi Kalyan,
This is a fantastic and hardhitting photoessay. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, but yours definitely speaks more than that. I hope people in “High places ” can really see this photoessay . Simply speaking it “Inspires”. Congratulations on a job welldone.
superb image………
this is stunning stuff Kalyan! Your work gets better and better!!
hi………………….
u r superb.wow super pic……….
i really liked all those pic of animals,landscapes etc……………..
the stunning beauty of the nature u captured in ur cam….i’m not getting words to express hw beautiful is ur photography………….me too interested in photography & traveling
go on all the wishes & prayer frm me………..
Excellent job, Kalyan. All the comments above say it. 🙂
As always, im a fan,
ruth stan/.ph
Wonderful photo essay. It really is sad what we do in the name of development.
Btw, how high did you have to jump to take these pics?!! 😀
It’s shocking and depressing to see these images… We need more such essays and we need more people to become aware of what’s going on in the name of development and urbanization… Good work Kalyan!
Absolutely stunning aerial photographs! would be great if you could share the technique 🙂
hot air balloon is my guess 🙂