Many states are resorting to draconian provisions to acquire land, denying farmers fair compensation.
Namdev Kumbhar saw it in a local newspaper first. An airport was to come up in his block, Purandar, an hour’s drive from Pune, in western Maharashtra.
Although the report did not list the villages that the proposed airport would cover, Kumbhar’s thoughts immediately jumped to the thousands of pomegranate, fig and mango trees that dot the region—a major source of income for the locals. In Kumbhar’s own village Vanpuri, of which he is the sarpanch, every family owns about a hundred such trees.
Subsequently, he heard rumours that the Maharashtra government was considering three or four locations in Purandar …
Nihar Gokhale led the Chaos coverage at The Morning Context. Nihar wrote on the environment, the economy and resource conflicts in India. He has reported from across the country on everything from displacement, pollution and environmental violations to land regulation, corruption and human rights. He was earlier associate editor at Land Conflict Watch, and his work has appeared in Scroll, The Wire, IndiaSpend, The Caravan and Mongabay India.
Editor, Chaos
nihar@mailtmc.com
Delhi