The village of Sary-Mogol, in south-eastern Kyrgyzstan, has an official population of 5,200 and is located near the 7,134-metre-high Lenin Peak. As the peak is a very popular destinaton for foreign visitors, the population’s activity is closely linked to tourism. 2020 was a difficult year with only a handful of tourists stopping by the village. Some residents left for Russia while others changed professions. The villagers cannot grow anything except potatoes and barley due to the altitude (3,600m) and practice traditional animal breeding practices.

These pictures are part of the UNDP Eurasia project “Surviving a pandemic: Visual impacts of Covid-19” realised in 2020.

Credit: Danil Usmanov (Kyrgyzstan)

To learn more about Danil Usmanov and his work, check out our French or German website, we presented his work on our series “Central Asia through the lens of …”.

Find all of our photos of the day here.