Gujarat’s Banni grasslands: A heap of broken images, where the sun beats

Merubai Husain Jat explains her community’s relationship with the Banni grasslands simply: “Sukh ho ya dukh ho, hamare liye Banni he sab kuch hai,” (Whether there is joy or sorrow, for us, Banni is everything.) Everything around is brown, parched: her hut of thatched straw, the homes of those around, the trees stripped of leaves, and the landscape that stretches for miles around.Looking at her husband Jat Husain Ismail, the mother of seven, who owns 50 camels, says that even through the worst droughts they never left the Banni grassland. They survived by finding ways, one season at a time, to keep themselves and their herd alive. This is home.Sitting inside the straw house in Jatavira village in Gujarat’s Kachchh district, the sun streaming in to light up her heavy silver jewellery, she says, “If the grassland is taken, we will have to sell our herd and move on. We fear they we will become daily wage labourers.”The couple is a part of the Fakirani Jat, a nomadic pastoral community of shepherds and herders locally known as Maldhari, who have chosen to settle only in the last couple of years. Thousands of Maldharis, the majority of them Muslim, live across 16 Banni villages, a part of the 2,600 square kilometres that the entire grassland area covers.An NTPC Renewable Energy Limited is slated to move in to set up a solar project on the grassland. The villagers worry that this may impact their livelihood as pastoralists. They wonder whether to sell off their camels, buffaloes, sheep, and goats, and walk away from a way of life generations old.Conservationists have joined the locals in opposing the project, pointing to what sits at its centre: the Chhari Dhand wetland conservation reserve, a fragile ecological site that shelters indigenous species and draws lakhs of migratory birds from across the world. In January, it was designated a Ramsar-protected site, meaning it is on the list of Wetlands of International Importance. The proposed solar project sits barely 500 metres away.The villagers allege that the government has described the proposed site as unused wasteland belonging to the Revenue Department, a label that has left many furious. “How can they call this a wasteland?” says Mutva Agakhan Alayar, a livestock rearer from the Pulay panchayat. “Our herds graze here, our livelihood is here. This land belongs to no one person; it belongs to all of us. Every migration season rare birds arrive. This is where our camels breed.” Workers start their solar project work for NTPC near the Kiro hill in middle of the Chhari Dhand wetland, in Gujarat. | According to Mutva Bhegmamd, a local actively involved in the protest, over 1,000 acres fall under the eco-sensitive zone, while the remaining 400-500 acres consist of agricultural land. “Forest Department officials have remained silent, claiming they have no role in the project, as it does not fall on forest land. But we know that a portion of the forest area is also part of the project, and they are not speaking about it,” he says.Shifting groundsThe anger spilled into public view on May 22, International Day for Biological Diversity, when the community gathered for a day-long protest. “When our buffaloes graze in Chhari Dhand, the milk fetches ₹90 a litre because of its high fat content. But when we buy dry grass in summer, that same milk drops to ₹60,” says Mutva Rafeeq, also from Pulay panchayat, who owns 30 buffaloes. “Banni has over 70 varieties of grass, every one of them rich in nutrition. If they take this land, we do not just lose a grassland. We lose our playgrounds, our graveyards, our places of worship. Everything is falling under this project.”The Fulay villages alone are home to over 5,000 buffaloes and almost the same number of go