Looking back at 2025 through an Indian lens was not easy especially when tracking the months — incident by incident, many of them tough on the country and her people.
The big one very early in the year was the Maha Kumbh Mela at Prayagraj — a 45 day mega spectacle stretching the limits of the administration of many cities. Occurring in a cycle of once in 144 years, devotees from across the country and then some came visiting. It did not go incident-free, however. Stampedes occurred both at the Kumbh, and at New Delhi Railway Station where the rush to get a seat on a train to Prayagraj claimed lives: 18 of them at the railway station, and many more at the Kumbh itself. Going by ground reports, the trigger in both cases was appallingly sad, and could have been easily averted with better planning and management.
Meanwhile, Jammu and Kashmir was chugging along at a steady pace with tourism bringing in value to the local population, but everything changed on a fateful afternoon at Baisaran Valley in Pahalgam on April 22. Terrorists killed 25 tourists and a pony rider operator.
The shock waves were expectedly larger the life. From across the political spectrum, there was condemnation. And the photograph of a newly married woman next to her slain husband went viral: what followed was India taking on neighbouring Pakistan in an armed attack called Operation Sindoor. It was hard to miss the symmetry in the imagery, or the reasoning.
Elsewhere, the Himalayan States of Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh continued to face landslides and floods almost from where it left off in 2024. The world’s youngest mountains and the people living amid them have had some nightmarish moments in the past few years, and 2025 was no exception.
In a country as large as India, the year saw some brilliant moments of inspiration too. The National Defence Academy covered itself in glory when its first batch of women cadets, standing shoulder to shoulder with men, passed out as officers from Khadakwasla. It was a moment to be cherished, and the beaming smiles captured on camera. When talking gender, Harmanpreet Kaur and her girls lifted their first-ever Indian Women’s Cricket World Cup in 2025.
But as the year comes to a close, the familiar yet disastrous weather takes a nose dive, by way of air quality across the northern plains. The National Capital Region struggles even as the Delhi government tries short-term measures like pole-mounted mist sprays to take down a Goliath — an AQI that is closer to ‘severe’ most times than not.
Theyyam Kandanar Kelan, a deity based on the legend of an archer-farmer, braves blazing flames in an hour-long ritualistic frenzy at the Kaliyattam festival held in March in Kannur, Kerala.
Vying for a view: Fans during the IPL victory celebration of the Royal Challengers Bengaluru on June 4, when a stampede led to the death of 11 persons.
Nature's fury: Flood-like situation in area affected by a cloudburst, at a village in Chamoli, Uttarakhand on July 8.
Alert zone: Security personnel seen at the blast site near Red Fort in New Delhi on November 10. At least 14 were killed in the incident which left several injured.
Grey choke: A pole-mounted mist spray system operates to mitigate pollution as air quality remains 'very poor' in Delhi on a December morning.
Rain lashes several parts of Chennai on December 1, 2025.
Large pileup of luggage at Delhi airport in New Delhi on December 8, 2025.
A herd of elephants walking through the forest seen at Thekkathi Malai in Bhavanisagar Reserve forest Range in Erode district, Tamil Nadu on October 12, 2025.
MiG 21 aircraft during its retirement ceremony after completing service of around 62 years, at the Chandigarh Airbase in Punjab on September 26, 2025.
Scene at one of the gates of the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium after unruly RCB fans tried to gain forcible entry during the IPL-18 victory celebration in Bengaluru on June 4, 2025.
A view of the new Pamban rail bridge and the old Pamban bridge - with more than a 100 years between them, on April 4, 2025.
Devotees in large number gathered to take the holy dip at the Triveni Sangam on the occasion of Maha Shivratri and the culmination of Maha Kumbh at Prayagraj on February 26, 2025.