Climate

India’s salt workers endure brutal heat in Gujarat’s remote desert

A salt pan worker rakes salt on an alkali flat in the Little Rann of Kutch region in Gujarat. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

In the blinding white glare of the salt flats, workers rake shallow pans of brine each day, coaxing out crystals that help Gujarat produce most of India’s salt. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Regular raking of the salt pans ensures even crystalisation. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Researchers say the salt pan workers in Gujarat suffer from high levels of dehydration and early signs of kidney malfunction. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

On the remote salt pans with no electricity or healthcare, the workers rely on a single water tanker that arrives every 25 days to supply all their drinking and washing needs. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A salt pan worker holds a handful of harvested salt. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Despite rising heatwaves and storms that can erase months of work overnight, salt pan families return to the Little Rann each year, saying they have no other way to earn a living. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A salt pan worker carries a rare pair of rubber boots as she walks across an alkali flat in Gujarat’s Little Rann of Kutch. The protective footwear shields workers’ feet from corrosive brine that can crack exposed skin so deeply it bleeds. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

Rows of white salt mounds rise out of the desert, the result of weeks of raking and shovelling by families who earn only a few hundred dollars for a season’s labour. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

A truck drives past solar panels while transporting harvested salt from an alkali flat at the Little Rann of Kutch region in Gujarat. [Shammi Mehra/AFP]

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Iraq's marshes revived: long-awaited rains bring life back to wetlands

A fishing boat in the Hawizeh Marsh in Maysan province, southern Iraq, after water returned due to rainfall following a long period of drought. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

Hawizeh is a transboundary marsh shared by Iraq and Iran. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

A water buffalo feeds as it wades through the Iraqi Hawizeh Marsh in Maysan province, southern Iraq. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

The Huwaizah Marshes in southern Iraq are part of the famed Mesopotamian wetlands, long considered one of the world’s great cradle-of-civilisation landscapes. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

A boy rests as fishermen ride in their boat through the Iraqi Hawizeh Marsh in Maysan province. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

Fed by the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the marshes support rich biodiversity, including migratory birds, fish and water buffalo. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

Marsh buffalo milk is an iconic part of Iraqi cuisine, as is the thick, clotted “geymar” cream Iraqis love to have with honey for breakfast. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

After years of drought worsened by upstream dams and climate change, recent winter rains have helped restore water levels, bringing cautious hope to the Indigenous communities who rely on fishing and herding. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]

Despite the revival, the ecosystem remains fragile and dependent on consistent water flows and stronger environmental protections. [Hussein Faleh/AFP]