The burning coal mine is seen village Borapahari in Jharia, Jharkhand, India. Coal fires rage just below the surface of the ground, making it too hot to walk with naked feet, noxious gases spew up from fissures, making the environment toxic. Residents who live above the furnace make $2 a day collecting small chunks of coal they sell to illegal middlemen. One or two houses collapse annually into vast underground caverns left unfilled by abandoned mining operations. Photo: Sanjit Das