Film set looms over adivasis' farm lands in Aarey

The start of the monsoon marks the sowing season for many, including the adivasis of Aarey. But this year, in Moracha Pada in Film City, the fields lie untouched due to an impending threat from an unlikely source: India's dream factory.

- Sabah Virani

MUMBAI:

The threat of landfilling looms over the adivasis' farms as a film set takes shape on the land. Last Friday, the day after World Environment Day, mounds of rubble were tipped into the valley that cradles their fields and grazing lands.

"Many of us have bought seeds from Borivali, Vasai and Virar," said Baby Mali, a tribal woman born and raised in the area, as other adivasi women gathered next to an earthmover ominously positioned next to them on Sunday.

Around 100 adivasi families live in Moracha Pada, on the other side of a boundary wall that separates them from Film City. They claim to have been moved out of Film City when film crews started muscling their way in decades ago. However, these tribal families continued to use the valley within Film City, called Sultanat Valley, for their annual monsoon farming. They also use the trees in the valley for the produce they yield during other months of the year.