Environment

World Photography Day: India’s year through DTE’s lens

From COVID-19 hollowing out lives and livelihoods to farmers agitating on Delhi borders undeterred to climate change leaving footprints all over, 2020-21 has been a year of change. Here is a look.

Vikas Choudhary
At Nigambodh Ghat, New Delhi, in 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic Over 25,000 people have died in the national capital since the beginning of the pandemic — more in the devastating second wave than the first. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
A waste-to-energy plant was inaugurated at Ghazipur market in 2020. The plant produces electricity through bio-gasification of bio-degradable waste generated from the market, instead of being disposed of. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
The redevelopment of Central Vista Avenue — stretching from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate — is expected to be wrapped up by the end of 2021. Calling it a project of ‘national importance’, The Delhi High Court had in June dismissed a petition that had sought a stay on its construction in the middle COVID-19 pandemic. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
A man dumps household waste on the Ramakrishna beach, Visakhapatnam. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
A monkey in Uttarakhand eats up plastic wrapper. The Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change notified Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules, 2021, on August 12 and prohibited 20 identified single-use plastic items by 2022. But packaging, which is almost 60% of India’s plastic waste, has not been listed to be phased out. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
Heatwave conditions prevailed in parts of Rajasthan with Sriganganagar recording the highest day temperature of 45.5 degrees Celsius. 2020-21 was the year when the reality of climate change could not be shrugged off. Floods, droughts, locust invasion, cylones and heatwaves dominated much of the year. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
Farmers from Tamil Nadu joined the farmer protest taking place on the borders of Delhi against the three contentious farm laws. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
On 26 January, tens of thousands of the farmers protesting agricultural reforms drove a convoy of tractors, earlier than the allotted time, to start the tractor rally into New Delhi. The farmers drove on prohibited routes in long lines of tractors, riding horses or marching on foot. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
At Hindon River, a tributary of the Yamuna, which originates in the Saharanpur district from Uttar Pradesh. Most household waste from nearby areas is dumped in the river. Photo: Vikas Choudhary
A flock of migratory birds at the Yamuna Ghat, in Delhi. Every year, brown-headed and black-headed gulls arrive at the Yamuna Ghat. The gulls come for breeding to the banks of Yamuna and Ganga. Photo: Vikas Choudhary