Gujarat's salt-pan farmers in Little Rann of Kutch served eviction notices citing wildlife conservation law

Harinesh Pandya

By A Representative
The salt-pan farmers of the Little Rann of Kutch in Gujarat are in a state of agitation. Thousand of them, locally called “agariyas”, have been served a strongly-worded notice which wants them to provide “proof” of the ownership of the land on which they have been carrying on salt farming, or "quit". Issued by the range forest officer, Wild Ass Sanctuary of the Little Rann, the notice says that if they do not provide evidence of ownership within a week, cases would be registered against them under the wildlife protection Act, which stipulates fine of up to Rs 25,000 and jail from three to seven years.
The notice, a copy of which is with Counterview, says that failure to comply by the order would make the officials to confiscate their equipment in agariyas’ possession, and they would be forcibly evicted from the Little Rann. Sources close to the development say, already, eviction at several of the villages bordering the Little Rann has begun. A week ago, 108 agariyas of village Adesar were stopped from going to the sites where they were carrying on salt farming. At village Naradi, four agariyas were detained, and their equipment confiscated.
Harinesh Pandya of Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM), NGO working in the with the agariyas, told Counterview that they are being asked to “identify” the trucks carrying gypsum, used in several industries as raw material and which is a byproduct following salt farming, so that these could be detained. “They are being told that either they should provide details of the trucks which transport gypsum sold by agariyas to middlemen, or the bail of those who were released would be cancelled”, he said, adding, “Livelihood of 12,000 families directly dependent on salt farming, is at stake.”
The notices have been served when a Gujarat industries department livelihood project for agariyas to produce high quality salt is on. The project is being carried out with the technical support of the Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute (CSMCRI), Bhavnagar, which has developed a patented process for the recovery of Industrial grade salt from sea/ subsoil brines and utilization of bittern to produce value added products like potash and magnesium with community help from three NGOs -- Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Anandi and AHRM.

Rahul Gandhi in the Little Rann

“The notices are also shocking as they have been issued when the World Bank’s biodiversity project, costing Rs 25 crore, for the Little Rann of Kutch is in progress. The World Bank project envisages symbiotic relationship between wildlife and local people”, Pandya said, adding, “Faced with eviction, local leaders have begun to approach MLAs and MPs representing the villages situated bordering the Little Rann in four districts – Rajkot, Surendranagar, Banaskantha and Patan. Politicians are worried: Ahead of the Lok Sabha polls, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the Little Rann and put the area on national map.”
In fact, according to Pandya, forest officials do not understand the implications of forced eviction from the Little Rann. “Currently, agraiyas are lenient towards wild ass, a rare species, who feed on their agricultural farmlands situated in border villages. Once they are refused permission to enter the Little Rann, they would start attacking the wild ass, as they would have to ensure that their crop is not destroyed. There would be man-animal conflict. Things would go particularly worse, as agariyas do not have any other alternative sources of employment.”
Further, according to Pandya, “There is no clarity in the government on how to treat the agariyas. While on one hand, they are considered farm workers producing salt on a no man’s land, which has not been surveyed to this date, but on the other, the state industries department qualifies their job as a salt mining activity. As a community in the Little Rann, they are entitled to use the natural resources for their own survival under the Forest Rights Act, but mining is not allowed.” Today, 75 per cent of India’s salt is produced in Gujarat, out of which 40 per cent is produced using by the agariyas, while the rest is industrial marine salt.

Comments

Was Netaji forced to alter face, die in obscurity in USSR in 1975? Was he so meek?

By Rajiv Shah This should sound almost hilarious. Not only did Subhas Chandra Bose not die in a plane crash in Taipei, nor was he the mysterious Gumnami Baba who reportedly passed away on 16 September 1985 in Ayodhya, but we are now told that he actually died in 1975—date unknown—“in oblivion” somewhere in the former Soviet Union. Which city? Moscow? No one seems to know.

Love letters in a lifelong war: Babusha Kohli’s resistance in verse

By Ravi Ranjan* “War does not determine who is right—only who is left.” Bertrand Russell’s words echo hauntingly in our times, and few contemporary Hindi poets embody this truth as profoundly as Babusha Kohli. Emerging from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, Kohli has carved a unique space in literature by weaving together tenderness, protest, and philosophy across poetry, prose, and cinema. Her work is not merely artistic expression—it is resistance, refuge, and a call for peace.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Asbestos contamination in children’s products highlights global oversight gaps

By A Representative A commentary published by the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) has drawn attention to the challenges governments face in responding effectively to global public-health risks. In an article written by Laurie Kazan-Allen and published on March 5, 2026, the author examines how the discovery of asbestos contamination in children’s play products has raised questions about regulatory oversight and international product safety. The article opens by reflecting on lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that governments in several countries were slow to respond to early warning signs of the crisis. Referring to the experience of the United Kingdom, the author writes that delays in implementing protective measures contributed to “232,112 recorded deaths and over a million people suffering from long Covid.” The commentary uses this example to illustrate what it describes as the dangers of underestimating emerging threats. Attention then turns...

The kitchen as prison: A feminist elegy for domestic slavery

By Garima Srivastava* Kumar Ambuj stands as one of the most incisive voices in contemporary Hindi poetry. His work, stripped of ornamentation, speaks directly to the lived realities of India’s marginalized—women, the rural poor, and those crushed under invisible forms of violence. His celebrated poem “Women Who Cook” (Khānā Banātī Striyāṃ) is not merely about food preparation; it is a searing indictment of patriarchal domestic structures that reduce women’s existence to endless, unpaid labour.

The price of silence: Why Modi won’t follow Shastri, appeal for sacrifice

By Arundhati Dhuru, Sandeep Pandey* In 1965, as India grappled with war and a crippling food crisis, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri faced a United States that used wheat shipments under the PL-480 agreement as a lever to dictate Indian foreign policy. Shastri’s response remains legendary: he appealed to the nation to skip one meal a day. Millions of middle-class households complied, choosing temporary hunger over the sacrifice of national dignity. Today, India faces a modern equivalent in the energy sector, yet the leadership’s response stands in stark contrast to that era of self-reliance.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Rajiv Shah Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

India’s green energy push faces talent crunch amidst record growth at 16% CAGR

By Jag Jivan* A new study by a top consulting firm has found that India’s cleantech sector is entering a decisive growth phase, with strong policy backing, record capacity additions and surging investor interest, but facing mounting pressure on talent supply and rising compensation costs .

Beyond sattvik: Purity, caste and the politics of the Indian kitchen

By Rajiv Shah A few week ago, I was forwarded an article that appeared in the British weekly The Economist . Titled “Caste and cuisine: From honeycomb curry to blood fry: India’s ‘untouchable’ cooking”, it took me back to what I had blogged about what was called a “ sattvik food festival”, an annual event organised by former Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad professor Anil Gupta.

Search This Blog