Souvid Datta

Photo Feature: India’s Little Known Musical Traditions SHARE, SAVE, COMMENT A singer performs traditional Baul songs in a village in Uttar Pradesh. (Photo: Souvid Datta) Souvid DattaUpdated: 00H 04M AGO (This story was originally published on 21 June 2016 and has been reposted from The Quint's archives to mark World Music Day.) India is famous for its diversity; climatic, linguistic, traditional and cultural. Across the country’s 29 states, over 500 dialects are spoken.

The Shuogang group steel factory on the outskirts of Beijing. Despite the government promising to close many major polluting factories within city limits following the 2008 Olympics several are still operating behind closed doors. At dawn every day the factory waste-water pipe illegally spews hazardous chemicals into a local lake. © Souvid Datta A worker peers out from beneath the miniature scale model of Beijing's vast central districts, while developers discuss above.

A few years ago, the younger brother of photographer Souvid Datta’s close friend was diagnosed with lung cancer. He was 13 and lived in Beijing. The cause: overexposure to small air particle pollutants, which severely exacerbated his existing respiratory problems. After a series of failed treatments, the boy passed away two years later. It was Datta’s first contact with pollution in China and it had a deep impact.