Day 2 : Helpless villagers and some pushbacks

The brothers from yesterday had kept their room open to let me use the kitchen in the morning. I woke up a few times to the barking of dogs and some noises that I couldn’t really identify. After making myself some tea and sitting quietly looking at the sunrise I left the temple. From the edge of the sea I could see Mumbai in the distance. The only thing keeping this village quaint and away from all the urbanisation was this vast creek that stood in front of me. On the other shore everything was filled with money. Endless towers rose out of the ground and people ran around for money, but on this side, there was a village going about its daily rituals in its usual slow pace. They were enjoying their life, happy and content in live alongside nature that grew wild. This creek being the barrier between them and urbanisation— and it was good to have this barrier.

Today was positive. After having my breakfast along the beach, I met the first person who was casting his fishing net alongside his wife. He knew the dangers that the proposed road and bridge would eventually bring. I guess it is safe to say that the ones who have their livelihoods connected to nature, see the impact for what it is, but the ones who are not connected to the land want this development. Bhau says, his village was some 2 kms into the sea. His forefathers had relocated to this shore when some land, which was snatched during the British rule, was bestowed to this “aagri” community after independence. They grew rice in the fields that now lay dormant with mangrove overgrowth. Building dams out of mud and stones they stopped the incoming of tides and hence making the land fertile for taking crops during the monsoon. In time, the smell of Mumbai lured many into believing that urbanisation is the only way forward. Many left for mumbai leaving the lands barren. Slowly and steadily the sea extended her hands and reached for their fields.

I see that many people here are living their life closely linked to nature. They are fishermen, farmers, carpenters who know the land very well. They don’t destroy nature while using the land, instead they play an intricate role in keeping it balanced. The environmentalist kinds and the forest department don’t allow these poor villagers (who were the real owners of this land- although they never claimed it) to cut the overgrowth of mangroves for farming purposes but they allow builders to use that same piece of land, they allow roads to be built by dumping earth on this land. These villagers seem frustrated because they have a memory of this place. This memory goes far beyond the reach of these industries and building contractors and frankly- government. They don’t like the fact that environmental laws are only applied when they want to use the land but when these outsiders (business lobby, rich people building their villas, chemical factories, industrialists) want to build something there, these laws hold no meaning. Suddenly you see laws being mend in order to accommodate them. It’s blatant use of government for all the wrong purposes.

The ground where Bhau grew up playing different sports, is now owned by a rich man living in Mumbai- any day waiting to be converted into a resort or a factory. The land next to the sea which these people used to dry their fish is now given to businesses from outside who gate their compounds and cut all the roads that lead the fishermen to the sea.

In Mandva, a big builder has bought off land in the marshes— the same marshes that the villagers are not allowed to enter and cut for planting rice are now being “developed” by an MLA/builder into 50-100 story buildings. An elderly in the village told me how they had protested for a long while against this and now this project was passed overnight and dumpers brought in soil and stones to fill up the marshes some 20 feet to raise the base of the land.

Villagers have done used unique tactics here. When they protested or complained in the past, the police would put that complaintant villager in jail to in-still fear in them. Now the village of a thousand people goes together to the police and asks everyone to be put in jail.

These tactics haven’t helped them to stop the incoming urbanisation. The big landowners sold their land in the past and the few thousand who are left, don’t have enough land to call it a village anymore. Celebrities, cricketers, businesspeople have turned these villages into exhibition spaces to display their wealth. Massive bungalows and villas are spread along this land where its actual villagers— with no other sources of income- are now forced to work as cleaners and repairmen.

We all laughed in the evening, where I was invited into a house in Ziradpada, when the lady said, “we toiled this land, played in the jungles, got wood to cook from these mountains, our forefathers built houses that overlooked a clean flowing river, but now we the people of this land are working in these bungalows as servants. Our jungles and forest too are now barricaded and we are forced to work to pay for gas cylinders.”

Here the air is clean, the water was pure until now, the land gave the best yield. The incoming people don’t mix with the villagers. These villagers walked from anywhere, even when the landowner was someone else, but now they find themselves into a barricaded hell. These people don’t want this village to turn into a big city. We need to listen to them and certainly bring their memories of their past into light.

I was invited by Mamta who had read about my walk. She came all the way to see me while I walked on the main highway. Today I will sleep at her place. A family of 20 who live together on a tiny piece of land. All native of this village.

Tomorrow I walk towards another few villages, meeting people, sharing thoughts and extending the dialogue..

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