Assam villagers tell wetland’s tragic tale through photos

Rural guards honoured with artwork depicting elephants negotiating a killer railway track alongside Deepor Beel, a Ramsar Site under threat

About six years ago, dairy farmer Pramod Kalita felt he needed to document the deterioration of the wetland that sustained his forefathers and ensured ample food for herds of elephants that would troop past his village Chakardeo for a dip-and-dine. His informal group of 25 members pooled money for three digital single-lens reflex cameras and went about clicking the elephants, trees, birds, boats, a massive garbage dump and warehouses and a “killer railway track skirting Deepor Beel, a freshwater lake on the south-western edge of Guwahati”.