‘Many families just vanished…’

“It was right in the harvest season. The collector called representatives of all our villages to his office and gave us a three-month ultimatum. ‘Empty the place before December or else we will call the police and chase you off’ he said,” recollects 68-year-old Vitthal Ganu Vide.

His was among the 127 families from the five doomed villages and hamlets. Vakichapada, Palaspada and Godhepaddul were Adivasi hamlets. Palheri and Pachiware were villages with families mostly belonging to Other Backward Classes (OBCs). All these were totally submerged by the Bhatsa dam project during 1970-72.

“My village was Palheri. And there were other tribal settlements located close by. It was surrounded by dark forest and a river,” says Vide. 

The government acquired 3,278 hectares of land for the Bhatsa project. Of these, 653 hectares were private land and the rest was state-owned forest. The 127 families losing their homes included 97 of the Ma Thakur tribe and 30 OBC families. The fallout: almost half a century later, 578 human beings still await “rehabilitation.” 

“Our last harvest season in 1970 saw no traditional celebration. Those three months [October to December] were very difficult. We couldn’t thank our mother earth. No Dussehra, no Diwali that year,” recalls Vide.

Just two kilometres from his village, in Murbichapada, are 35 tribal families displaced from Godhepaddul by the dam during 1971-72. Jaytu Bhau Kevari was 16 then. He left the village with his parents and four siblings.

“For the very first time, we did not greet the harvest with our traditional dhol and dance. Everyone was frightened and thinking: how long can we survive with their ‘compensation’,” says Kevari. 

“Some took shelter in the villages of their relatives. Others went to nearby villages and padas like Sarangpuri, Birwadi, Aatgaon, Khutghar, Khaire, Murbichapada. Many families just vanished. We don’t know where they went,” he adds.

“Before that, our lives were peaceful and self-reliant. We would harvest paddy and sometimes cereals on highly fertile land. Wood for fuel, fruits and medicinal herbs, plants to cure various diseases – all would come from the forest. We had six cows, there would be milk all the time. Now, it’s hard even to see it,” says Kevari.

Rami Kevari from Vetapada was barely 15 when she married Babu Bhau Kevari in Palaspada. “All we needed to run our world, we found around us. We had a paddy farm and cows. Some would grow vegetables and dals [pulses] such as urad, tur, moong and harbhara [chickpea]. Dal, once free and plentiful, is out of our reach now. We never spent to eat, but now we have to,” she says. 

Gopal Dattu Kevari, 35, like many of his age group, works as an agricultural labourer. His is a 16-member family. “I earn Rs. 200-250 a day. But can’t find work for more than 150 days in a year,” he says.

Gopal has six daughters and a son to look after. He also has five younger brothers with no permanent jobs. “All of us together, we earn no more than 5,000 to 6,000 rupees a month.”

There is a primary school in Murbichapada, but the nearest high school is in Kothare village, six kilometres away. “After Class 10, students from all padas have to go to Shahapur, where colleges and hostels exist. Few can manage this, so drop-out rates are high,” says a local teacher who sought anonymity.

Sachin Kevari, 23, from Murbichapada, completed his Class 10 exam nearly eight years ago, while working as a farm labourer. “I could afford neither the hostel nor the commuting. Earning money to support my family was more important,” he says in despair.

The 88-metre-high Bhatsa dam has a storage capacity of 976 cubic metres and a power generation capacity of 15 megawatts. It irrigates 23,000 hectares of land. It also supplies thousands of litres of drinking water to Mumbai and Thane.