India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. The reduced flow of water in Kavery river has also caused a spike in pollution levels. People take dips in the shallow waters of the Kavery at the bathing ghat. They are perhaps unaware that faecal coliform levels in the water are prohibitively high, making the water unfit for bathing.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. A portrait of Karpule, a farmer of Tamil Nadu who once worked as farmer. Now, he works on a construction site, and he gain more or less 400 rupees five euros per day.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. Laalgudhi village. Mallika, standing in the middle of the field, where her husband Pallicham committed suicide by hanging himself in January 2017. Because of the extreme dought, the crop was destroyed and the family got into debts.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. A farmer in his banana plantation. Tamil Nadu received its worst rainfall in 140 years during last year’s retreating north-east monsoon, which is the source of 60% of the annual rainfall in many of its coastal districts.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. Ammangudi village. Pennachiamal, mother of a farmer who commited suicide in February 2017 by drinking pesticide in front of the bank whose manager insistenly asked for the loan to be paid.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. The commemorative picture of Selvarasy, 65, a farmer who committed suicide on May 2017 by hanging himself in his field. He got into debt with a Cooperative Society because a serious drought hit the crop. He leaves the wife and three sons.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. The shovel used by Selvarasy to work on fields.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. Rasathi, 56, the wife of Selvarasy, 65, a farmer who committed suicide on May 2017 by hanging himself in his field. He got into debt with a Cooperative Society. According to a study carried out by Tamma A. Carleton, the warming over the last
30 years is responsible for 59.300 suicides in India. She estimates that fluctuations in climate, particularly temperature, significantly
influence suicide rates.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. An aerial view of dry fields near Lalgudi, in Tamil Nadu. The retreating northeast monsoon—usually unnoticed in India owing to the singular importance of the larger southwest monsoon—in 2016 was the worst ever over the last 140 years, according to Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) records, since 1876.
India, Tamil Nadu, May 2018. One of the skulls claimed to be a suicide farmer’s skull hold by mr. Premkumar, member of the south indian farmers association. this skull was also used during a protest in Delhi in 2017, where farmers demanded a drought relief package and loan waiver for peasants from the state. Tamil Nadu is suffering the worst drought in the last 140 years.