Day 3 of Barsu-Solgaon protests: 1,800 police personnel deployed; unrelenting locals says project will upend way of life

“This project is harmful for our surroundings. We will lose everything, from our land to our temples. Everything cherished by our ancestors which has been with us for centuries will be destroyed. This is why we are against this project,” said Anant Holkar (57), a farmer from Shivane village who cultivates mangoes and cashews.

Many of the local residents fear that the refinery will radically alter the relatively pristine landscape of the area and alter their way of life.

“We are not against development. We have, however, studied how destructive these refineries can be. We went to Mahul (in Mumbai’s Chembur), which has a chemical refinery in close proximity. We could see how unsafe and polluted the area had become. We don’t want that… in our ancestral land. Hence we are opposing the project. We want to save our land,” said Parshuram Terwankar (54).

Terwankar, a resident of Solgaon, has been camping, along with fellow protesting farmers, under the searing heat, metres away from where the refinery is supposed to come up.

Terwankar also raised a question about how the same refinery, which was earlier planned in Nanar, was termed ‘destructive’ and later scrapped. He sought to know how that same refinery — which is now proposed to be set up Barsu-Solgaon, just 2 km away from Nanar — had “somehow become a green refinery”.

Ajinkya Kamble (28) from Solgaon village also raised concerns about the impact the refinery will have on pollution levels. “They are calling it a green refinery but it is not. It is a petrochemical refinery and it will adversely impact the environment and the health of the residents. They are boasting about employment generation in the region but what would be the use of employment and jobs if nature is destroyed and the area is no longer livable,” said Kamble, who works in a private firm and also does cultivation work occasionally.

Meanwhile, a day after over 100 protesters were arrested and later released on bail, the state administration continued to deploy a large number of policemen at the site. The 1,800 policemen deployed here include three companies of State Reserve Police Force personnel and four teams of riot control police.

Entry to the soil testing site of the refinery, where the villagers had held their protest on Tuesday, was prohibited for all local residents. The authorities also imposed Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code at the site, prohibiting public movement and gathering within a one-km radius of the proposed drilling site at Barsu.

Ratnagiri Superintendent of Police Dhananjay Kulkarni said, “The situation was peaceful on Wednesday and there was no protest incident. We have deployed nearly 1,800 policemen”.

When The Indian Express visited the protest site on Wednesday a few hundred metres from the soil testing site, locals residents claimed that they were threatened by police personnel and some said they were physically assaulted by policemen on Tuesday.

“We have been protesting at the site for the past three days but instead of catering to our demands, police tried to suppress our voice and used force against us. Several villagers including elderly women were assaulted and manhandled by the police on Tuesday. We will keep opposing the refinery project. We want to save our land and our temples,” said Eknath Gorule, a local farmer.

When asked if such heavy deployment of police personnel was necessary, Inspector General of Police Pravin Pawar said the deployment was meant to ensure that the situation remains under control.