- [Bengal-Nagpur Railway Construction, Photograph No. 23]
This photograph was taken by Townshend. In this photograph, the land has been dug up. There is no vegetation or trees and only dirt and gravel among the digging site. However, there appears to be a lot of trees and vegetation on the land outside the digging site. There are also many Indian workers depicted in this image. From this image, we can deduce that the Indian workers are the ones who dug up this land and are laying the groundwork for a massive construction project, such as the construction of a railroad. It can also be deduced that an act of deforestation might have occurred in order to lay the path for the future railroad or construction project. This photo also suggests that a significant amount of Indian workers were needed for this construction, especially due to a lack of machinery present. How long would it take the Indian workers to complete a project as invasive as this one photographed with the lack of resources they had? What was the environmental impact of a construction operation like this?
http://digitalcollections.smu.edu/cdm/singleitem/collection/eaa/id/1483/rec/24