ht indepth

How toxic is our air: India’s air pollution in five charts

India’s air quality data shows that we have been breathing toxic air for a long time. These five charts explain how polluted Delhi’s air is and which other cities are engulfed in pollution.

Four states will decide the US presidential election

Most of the states don’t really matter. These four do.

HT Special: A look at the tough life of soldiers guarding the border

Soldiers along the Line of Control are in the thick of a nerve-wracking battle after the surgical strikes in September altered the rules of the game. HT spends time with the troops on the border to understand the challenges the men are up against.

No school, no skateboarding: India’s first rural skate park

HT photojournalist Pratik Chorge captures the essence of Janwaar Castle - India’s first rural skate park, where village children are taught skate boarding free of cost.

Meet Kolkata’s 92-year-old treasure collector

HT photojournalist Ashok Nath Dey takes a peek into the treasure-filled Kolkata home of 92-year-old Nakku Babu.

Boy hero: Kidnapped, run over by train, back on his feet

HT photojournalist Sanjeev Verma tells the story of National Bravery Award winner Ankit Rai who cheated death after he was kidnapped and left to die on a railway track.

Play the US Presidential Debate Tambola

To reward those of you who managed to drag yourselves out of bed to watch the third and final presidential debate, the Hindustan Times has prepared something special: presidential debate Tambola.

Love jihad: Why poll-bound UP is high on hate over interfaith romance

This is Part 3 of HT’s series which tracks patterns in riots in Uttar Pradesh, ahead of the assembly elections.

Religious violence keeps Uttar Pradesh’s political pot boiling

Police records collected from Uttar Pradesh’s 75 districts show that there have been over 12,000 incidents of communal clashes since 2010.

From drought to floods, Marathwada struggling to keep its head above water

Photographers Satish Bate and Anshuman Poyrekar capture Marathwada’s slow journey from battling severe drought to a surfeit of water, and how it has affected people’s lives.

Bright side of their world: The life of a visually challenged couple

HT Photojournalist Raj K Raj spends two days with a visually-impaired couple to capture personal moments of a close-knit family.

Kishore Kumar sings the hits: Explore all his avatars with our video jukebox

Kishore Kumar died 29 years ago today. He was just 58 years old, but his life was as full as the characters he sang for. Kumar was Bollywood’s ultimate shapeshifter: a singer, a hero, a class clown. He could be whatever the song called for: joyful or sad, pensive or goofy. Explore all his avatars with this video jukebox.

The man who gave us Malgudi Days: The life and times of R K Narayan

Nawaz as you’ve never seen before: Behind-the-scenes of our Brunch cover

These intimate portraits capture what it is like to live with a rare disorder

Meet the young snake charmers of Jogi Dera

HT Ground Glass presents a photo essay on the young snake charmers or saperas from the village of Jogi Dera, in Uttar Pradesh.

Four decades of presidents: US presidential election map

Interactive maps show the history of the US presidential elections and how the results have changed over time.

Who will win the US presidential election?

We selected some of the leading US election forecasters and put their predictions all on one chart that shows you where the race stands and where it is heading.

Every Hindi film song by Lata Mangeshkar, in one graphic

73 years. At least 5,401 songs. In other words, Lata Mangeshkar has been at it for a long time.

Gaata rahe mera dil: Let Lata Mangeshkar sing for you

Lata Mangeshkar was 13 years old when she debuted as a Hindi playback singer. The year was 1942. Since then she has sung more than 5,400 Hindi film songs for over 200 heroines. The result is a staggering repertoire, which you can now explore.

Interactive: Uri attack fits pattern of militancy in Kashmir

While the Uri attack was nearly unprecedented in its lethality, in other ways, it was typical of recent militancy in Kashmir.

HT Ground Glass: Finding dignity amid the dumping ground at Ghazipur

Delhi′s Ghazipur landfill site is a ticking garbage bomb. But for the children in the neighbourhood, it is a mine of interesting finds. Photojournalist Ravi Choudhary showcases their search for clothes, trinkets, broken toys and junk jewellery on a mountain of waste.

Old man river: Assam’s poor lose their homes, livelihood to Brahmaputra’s fury

Almost an annual ritual, flood waters of Brahmaputra ravaged Assam again. The increasingly frequent and intense floods force thousands to migrate from the river, changing human settlement patterns. In some places, displacement has even led to conflict.

MS Subbulakshmi: 100 years of a Carnatic legend

MS Subbulakshmi was more than a gifted classical singer. She was a rockstar in her own right.

India’s civilian awards, a visual history

Since 1954, the Indian government has been conferring its highest honors — from the venerable Padma Shri to the exclusive Bharat Ratna — on bureaucrats, artists, scientists, engineers, sporting heroes, and political icons. Taken together, the 4,329 awardees paint a picture of India’s recent history and tell a story about the country’s values and priorities.

HT Ground Glass: Casting for hope in the Yamuna

One of India’s most polluted waterways, comes alive every July-August during monsoon and the surging water revives its marine life. Lensman Burhaan Kinu captures the lives of the river’s annual visitors — the fishermen

The surreal world of photojournalist Pablo Bartholomew

For 29 years, a box full of Kodachrome slidesheets from an old assignment lay unopened in photojournalist, Pablo Bartholomew’s apartment. By the time he remembered them, they had been disfigured by time and termites. Re-examining the slidesheets, he looked at the decay he held in his hands, and put his energy to curate it as a work that had survived the kiss of death.

Home is away: India in three years and three centuries

As Nicholas Dawes says goodbye to India, he hears echoes of a long family history that resonate from Cape Town to Kashmir

Who holds the world record for the longest held world record?

Three track and field athletes set world records in Rio. But there is another record that will take decades for them to break.

In search of Ganga’s missing dolphins

The Ganga is home to India’s only dolphin reserve. But dams and dredging are endangering the reclusive, long-snouted species.

The gap between India and an Olympic gold

Indian athletes have made it to several Olympic finals but they have always fallen short of a spot on the podium. So when was the last time India’s national records in running, swimming, jumping or throwing would have won the country a gold at the Olympics?

No rest, no home: Delhi’s elderly travel long distances to beg

In Delhi’s shelter number 177, homeless women come from as far as four-hundred kilometers away – to beg and provide for their families. They are without a roof on their head but are hopeful of a brighter tomorrow.

Roofless in Delhi: the city doesn’t shelter transgendered people

Delhi has shelter homes for men, women, children, disabled, drug-addicts but not one for the third gender.

The 100-metre sprint where you get to choose the runners

We plotted each country’s national records for the 100-metre dash. Pick the countries and find out who wins the race.

Roofless in Delhi: Rampant drug use eats away the lives of homeless

In part 3 of our series on Delhi’s homeless, we look at the drug abuse and HIV infection.

Roofless in Delhi: Part I

No roof over their head, Delhi’s homeless battle rape, stigma and drugs. Studies say Delhi’s homeless anywhere between 52,000 and 2,46,000.

Don’t mess with Haryanvis (and don’t run from Keralites)

India’s athletic talent is not evenly distributed. Some regions produce many athletes; others produce none. Some states nurture top wrestlers; some, lightning fast sprinters.

Pellets: Lethal or not?

In Kashmir, more than 180 people are being treated for severe eye injuries because of pellets. Police claim that it is a “non lethal weapon”.

Who would you pick to replace Raghuram Rajan as RBI governor?

As Raghuram Rajan prepares to step down as governor of the Reserve Bank of India in September, speculation has swirled around who will be chosen to replace him as the leader of the country’s central bank.

Terror attacks in France have become deadlier, but not more frequent

Despite perceptions to the contrary, the frequency of terror attacks in France has not increased in recent years, according to data from the Global Terrorism Database, a project by the University of Maryland that tracks terrorist attacks since 1970.

Do strict gun laws keep Indians safer?

The mass shooting in Orlando shows that lax gun laws can be fatal. In India, where mass shootings are rare, gun ownership laws are much stricter than in the United Sates.

Inside India’s death row: Civil rights violations and a broken system

An investigation into capital punishment in India

In Pics: Delhi’s only recycle plant for construction waste

In north Delhi’s Burari area, a recycling plant is the go-to destination for construction and demolition waste from all over the capital city. Every day, 5000 tons of waste is recycled here. Documentary photographer Siddharth captures the men and machines at work in this plant.

In their own country, Kashmiri students are under attack

Kashmiri students were attacked in Jodhpur, allegedly as a backlash against the recent unrest at Srinagar’s NIT. But this was not the first such incident. Kashmiri students studying in colleges outside the valley have been attacked in at least 30 different instances since February 2013.

Every state assembly election in one map

Interactive map showing the winners of every state assembly constituency, year after year.

Saying goodbye to my grandmother

At 81-years-old, Annamma Varghese didn’t die comfortably, but she had come to long for the end.

Hindutva, beef politics making quiet entry into poll-bound Assam

Communal tension fuelled by beef politics has cropped up in Assam where land and ethnicity were, historically, the cause of most clashes.

In drought-hit western Maharashtra, children forced to live as orphans

As incomes from agriculture and cattle breeding continue to diminish thanks to repeated failed monsoons, more people from Madesh, Maharashtra are migrating to distant towns or sugar factories in Satara, Sangli and Kolhapur for alternative work, leaving their children behind

The Ishrat Jahan encounter case, explained

Around 5 am on the morning of June 15, 2004, an investigative unit in Ahmedabad — the city’s Detection of Crime Branch — received a call. Police officers from the Crime Branch had killed four suspected terrorists close to a water treatment plant on the outskirts of of the Gujarat capital. The four — three men and a woman — were believed to be linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), a Pakistani terror group.

HT’s photoblog Ground Glass presents the work of 5 women photographers

Hindustan Times launches its photo blog Ground Glass with the work of five passionate women photo journalists -- Chinky Shukla, Ruhani Kaur, Saumya Khandelwal, Mansi Thapliyal and Anushree Fadnavis. Away from the spotlight, they wield their cameras to tell stories which inspire and move us.