Home / Sunday-mid-day / / Article /
Between Devil & Deep Blue Sea
Updated On: 26 June, 2022 07:15 AM IST | Mumbai | Diwakar Sharma
Eco-fragile Dahanu—caught between Adani-Dahanu Thermal Power Station, Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation Tarapur and Gujarat Industrial Development Corporation Vapi—stares in the face of a railway line expansion, freight corridor construction and a contentious port for which 5,000 acres of land will be reclaimed
Listen to this article :
Vijay Vinde and Hemant Tarmore with members of the fishing community opposing the port, stand among undisturbed mangroves whose shade maintains temperature in tide pools, creating a nursery ground for fish and coral reefs. Pic/Hanif Patel
The grey clouds grow heavier as we negotiate the bends in the road leading to Yezdi Patel’s chikoo farm in the Dahanu-Gholvad belt of Palghar district, three hours from Mumbai. Two days earlier, the monsoon made a dramatic show of its arrival—it rained relentlessly for an entire day and a little more, we are told. Today, the spells are intermittent. Patel, who greets us at the entrance of his 50-acre orchard, looks up at the sky, and seems unimpressed. It won’t rain heavily, he hints, asking us to join him under the trees, where he has placed a few plastic chairs. “This year, the monsoon is already delayed by 10 days.”
A Dahanu local, Patel joined the family tradition when he became a chikoo farmer in 1983, at the age of 18. It would have been a lucrative career choice, except for the fact that, six years later, the state and Central governments cleared a proposal by the then Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply Company Limited (BSES) for a coal-fired thermal power plant to be set up in Dahanu taluka. At the time, the move was fiercely resisted by environmental activists—leading this fight was Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Group, whose petitions were dismissed by the Supreme Court in 1991, paving the way for the plant. Thirty one years on, Patel, whose farm is barely 12 km from the plant, says that nothing good has come out of that decision. “You know the story of the golden goose?” Patel asks, “Let’s just say that Dahanu has stopped laying its golden eggs.”
Read Next Story
Trending Stories
Latest Photos
Latest Videos
Latest Web Stories
ADVERTISEMENT
Mid-Day Fast
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT