Salt farming in Little Rann allowed for only 'eligible' Agariyas: Gujarat govt responds

By A Representative

Agariyas of the Santalpur block of Patan district, Gujarat, have not been allowed to enter the Little Rann of Kutch (LRK) for salt farming since September 2023. After repeated representations at the Principal Chief Conservator of Forests' (PCCF's) office, Agariyas reached the Patan district collector to announce that they were going to protest against the “discrimination” done by the forest department.
Reacting to the Counterview story that 1,200 Agariyas are not being allowed to enter LRK in specific areas, PCCF (wild life) Nityanand Srivastava said, “We are allowing only those whose name are there in the settlement report”, though underlining, only those “eligible for one well” will be permitted to do salt farming. This is necessitated, he added, by the fact that in earlier years, it was noticed, people employed by non-salt farming sections “were doing salt farming not as a means of earning but as a business of others”, with many working on “10 to 15 wells”.
Salt cultivation with one well is possible for up to 10 acres of land.
The process of the Survey and Settlement Report, prepared in the wake of a World Bank conditionality for grant to conserve biodiversity of the LRK’s wild ass sanctuary, was initiated in September 1997 and ended in 2016. Said to be an incomplete survey, it identified only 189 Agariyas to be included in the list for Santalpur block, as against estimates of up to 1,200.

A large number of Agariyas were left out from the survey as they were asked to produce ownership documents, which traditional Agariyas do not possess, say activists.
“There are lots of gaps in the Survey and Settlement Report”, believes Harinesh Pandya of the Agariya Heet Rakshak Manch (AHRM). “LRK is largely an un-surveyed piece of land. It was identified as survey number zero in 2006. Ironically, the government does not have revenue record of LRK”.
Importantly, the expert committee formed by the Government of India in 1948 clearly mentions that small Agariyas (up to 10-acre of land) do not require any registration or permission or license. This issue was recognized by even the chief minister’s office in 2008, and directions were given that “suo moto camps should be held to taking into account the Agariyas' claims.”
Large number of Agariyas were not even aware of the Survey and Settlement process when it was supposedly carried out.
“This is one reason why, on 4th September 2023, it was decided that the Survey and Settlement Report would need to be revised after having ‘on-site’ surveys”, Pandya underlined.

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...

Echoes of Vietnam and Chile: The devastating cost of the I-A Axis in Iran

By Ram Puniyani The recent joint military actions by Israel and the United States against Iran have been devastating. Like all wars, this conflict is brutal to its core, leaving a trail of human suffering in its wake. The stated pretext for this aggression—the brutality of the Ayatollah Khamenei regime and its nuclear ambitions—clashes sharply with the reality of the diplomatic landscape. Iran had expressed a willingness to remain at the negotiating table, signaling a readiness to concede points emerging from dialogue.

Authoritarian destruction of the public sphere in Ecuador: Trumpism in action?

By Pilar Troya Fernández The situation in Ecuador under Daniel Noboa's government is one of authoritarianism advancing on several fronts simultaneously to consolidate neoliberalism and total submission to the US international agenda. These are not isolated measures, but rather a coordinated strategy that combines job insecurity, the dismantling of the welfare state, unrestricted access to mining, the continuation of oil exploitation without environmental considerations, the centralization of power through the financial suffocation of local governments, and the systematic criminalization of all forms of opposition and popular organization.

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".

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.

Search This Blog