Erik Messori

"The real cost of Indian coal" - Some miners at work at the Munidhera coal mine (© Erik Messori)

Erik Messori (2013 Photographer of the Year; Environmental vision award): "The coalmining industry of Eastern India is producing inhumane conditions and shantytowns. Jharkhand, the second worldwide producer and supplier of coal is destroying entire forests and the life expectancy of its workers in order to satisfy the increasing demands of progress. The increased production of carbon monoxide and deforestation both created by the open-cut Indian coal mines have implications which will affect not only the Indian workers health, but India as nation as well as the rest of the world."