2.4 million people who live mostly on the 2,251 sand bars that dot the entire river system in Assam, are living at the mercy of nature for long, and are now fighting another battle to keep their Indian identity alive.

Kamal Khan’s life is as fragile as the char (sandbar) on which he lives. Unlike many char-dwellers, who shift to the riverbank or beyond when the river Brahmaputra erodes their land, Kamal moved to Balartari from Chenimari char along the river bank.

In the hills of northern Sikkim in northeast India, the Drokpa community live peaceful yet difficult lives. The hills resound with the songs the Drokpas have for every activity. These are not your usual villagers who reside in the same place for decades and have a set source of livelihood. Rather, the Drokpas, as their name suggests are nomads—“drokpa” is a Tibetan word that can be roughly translated as “nomad” or “high pastoral people”. For the last several generations, however, the Drokpas have followed an occupation that might soon disappear from Sikkim: herding yak.

Mansa, Punjab, India - With a scarf around her head and a bottle of cold water in her backpack, Kiranjit Kaur goes door to door as the sun beats down on Kotra Kalan village, calling on women to join an upcoming meeting about farmer suicides.

Two years ago she set up the Kisan Mazdoor Khudkushi Peedit Parivar Committee, an organisation to support families of suicide victims, bringing together widows and relatives of impoverished farmers who - struggling with crippling debt - killed themselves in Punjab, the breadbasket of India.

It is an 8 x 8 room without any ventilation or windows, but Shimon, a 20-year-old youth from Bihar, calls it home. It is his kitchen, living room and bedroom. It does not boast of any luxuries like a toilet and a bath, but he pays Rs. 1,500 for this "company-provided accommodation". Add to it the Rs. 5,000 he was asked to pay as advance by the garment factory he has been working for six years now. Yes, do the math. Shimon started work here as a child labourer.

Sangrur, Punjab: “Our struggle is not just about money. It’s about owning a farm where we can go without fear,” said Paramjit Kaur, standing at the door of her kitchen, rolling a dough ball to make chapatis. “Now, our daughters can go alone to harvest fodder at any time.”

Paramjit Kaur was talking about the 15.5 acres of common land she is jointly tending with 200 other Dalit families of the village, earning 2.5 quintal wheat and Rs 1,200 annual profit per household.

Women sitting in verandahs and pounding oil palm fruits, while chewing betel nuts, is a common sight in Saikaa village in Mizoram’s Kolasib district. Small plastic bottles of palm oil line the houses adjoining the roads that weave their way across the forests in this mountain village. Five years ago though, before Kolasib was declared India’s first oil palm cultivation district, the scenes here were different.

SINGRAULI, India -- After years of developing the thermal energy sector to meet the demands of a nation prone to outages, India is now facing a power glut with over 30 such producers teetering on bankruptcy. Yet the government shows no letup in its drive for more coal power and the effect of oversupply is rippling out to other sectors such as banks.

India's embrace of coal has allowed it to triple power generation over the past 15 years to 344 gigawatts, surpassing Japan to become the world's third largest electricity market.

As energy-hungry India seeks to fuel its continued economic growth, millions of people are being pushed out of their homes by companies, villagers say

By Megha Bahree

PIDARWAH, India - Siyaram Saket refuses to give up his one-and-a-half acres of farmland in central India - no matter how much the coal mining company offers him.

Whatever the amount, said the 55-year-old, it will not be enough to replace the value of the fertile land feeding his family of six in Pidarwah village, Singrauli district.

In January 2016, a decade after the Forest Rights Act (FRA) was passed by Parliament, 60 gram sabhas in Khutgaon, Gadchiroli, became the first forest-dwelling people in Maharashtra to file a claim for habitat rights. These people are part of a community called Madia Gond, classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG). Almost three years since their claims were submitted, since also approved by the authorised body, they are yet to receive their legal titles.