‘Like Kashmir’: How a toxic marble dump yard became a tourist spot in India

Kishangarh, India – As Bagharam Gurjar kneels to pull weeds from his maize field in western India’s Rajasthan state, the sound of his wife coughing nearby makes him restless.“Everything gets ruined when dust settles on the soil,” says Gurjar, 53, barely looking up.Recommended Stories list of 4 itemslist 1 of 4How Indians consume, drives the business of rubbishlist 2 of 4Curse of silicosis haunts ‘village of widows’ in Indialist 3 of 4New Delhi’s garbage mountains become heat bombs for India’s waste pickerslist 4 of 4India’s disappearing camels: How a law to save them is wiping them outend of list“May God make everything right,” replies his wife between bouts of chronic cough. “Otherwise, it becomes difficult to grow crops.”Bagharam Gurjar looks towards his field, sitting outside his single-storey house [Wasim Nabi/Al Jazeera]The Gurjars are among nearly 5,000 people living in the vicinity of what has turned out to be one of the most unusual tourist destinations in India.Their village, Bhogiyawas, is just 6km (4 miles) from Kishangarh, where a 300-acre (121-hectare) marble slurry dumping yard resembles a snow-clad landscape, attracting hundreds of tourists every day in an otherwise ...