Witnessing the Devastation of Coal Through Instagram

In December 2017, Help Delhi Breathe collaborated with Ruhani Kaur, an Indian Photojournalist to document the impact of coal pollution on the lives of people living in Singrauli, India’s power capital.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmUbF4Ln4cm/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

Singrauli in Madhya Pradesh is home to over 10 towering coal-fuelled power plants, including India’s largest thermal power station. For the community living there, these power plants are costing them their lives. They’re battling cancer, kidney failure and disability. The air is so thick with ash and noxious gases from the power plants that it blankets whole towns and villages with a thick layer of soot. Some days it blocks out the sun, turning day to night, leaving people struggling to breathe.

Every day in Singrauli, the families living around the ancient thermal power plants and coal mines know the exact cost of this capitulation to the power industry. Each day brings new misery, illnesses and deaths.

To raise awareness and highlight the tragic human and environmental impact of unregulated coal power plants and open cast coal mines in Singrauli, Ruhani took over Everyday Climate Change’s Instagram handle between 6-10 August, 2018.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmQ_NYdn52v/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmTB-rEnyxh/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmSk4MDHQr9/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmVTIATnCMo/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

https://www.instagram.com/p/BmVuRQ2nlJS/?hl=en&taken-by=everydayclimatechange

Everyday Climate Change has a huge audience, with over 112,000 followers of photographers, artists, creatives and climate change activists. Instagram is a great storytelling platform to share content and engage with a diverse and global audience. Through photographs, video testimonials and quotes, it helped us in reaching out to a new audience and highlighting the impact that dirty coal is having on the air we breathe and our health.