Villagers veto sale of grazing land to Mundra SEZ

Until a month ago the Adani Group, the proponent of Mundra sez in Kutch district of Gujarat, had been on a roll, buying land at dirt-cheap rates, though some in the political circle and real-estate market smelled a scam in it. Then something unprecedented happened. The people of Zarapara village near Mundra port revolted. On April 15, over 3,000 villagers forced the panchayat to cancel the resolution by which 400 hectares (ha) of the gauchar land (pasture) was given to the company and declared that not an inch of the land would be given for the sez, potentially the biggest in the country.

We propose to cancel the previous resolution which was passed clandestinely to grant the pasture to the Adani Group.If the panchayat does not act on this resolution passed by the gram sabha, we will propose to dissolve the village panchayat because it has forged a nexus with the Adani people to illegally acquire our pasture, said Valji Gadhvi, the convenor of the Save Gauchar Committee (see box Adani, go back).

The Adani Group refutes the charge. We have been allotted the land following proper procedure. If any issue has cropped up, it is internal matter of the villages governing body, and the company has nothing to do with it, said Hiren Shah, a representative of the group.

The village, which has 9,000 heads of cattle, has also challenged the panchayats resolution in the Gujarat High Court and threatened that it would not let the company begin work on the land.

The Zarapara land deal is just the tip of the iceberg. As per government norms 16 ha of gauchar land is allocated per 100 animals and cannot be sold. The Adani Group has taken gauchar land in about 10 villages surrounding the Mundra port (see table Grazing on pastures). People in other villages have also started agitating against the arbitrary decisions taken by panchayats. The real shock, however, lies in the price at which the Adanis got the land.