Padaliya, Gujarat: In March, Marudiben Bhagora and dozens of others travelled 50 kms away to Palanpur from her village Padaliya. Bhagora and others were going to a meet to discuss and understand the happenings of December 2025 – when hundreds of them ran out of their homes to claim their rights, but also to save their lives from police bullets.On December 13, 2025, a routine patrol by Gujarat Police and forest officers in Padaliya village of Gujarat’s Banaskantha district’s Danta Taluka, transformed into one of the most intense clashes between tribal people and government staff in recent years. Vehicles were burnt, stones pelted, policemen bled and injured tribals ran for their lives, lands and homes.In what was labelled as a ‘plantation drive’ by Gujarat Police and forest officers, several await bail for standing up to bulldozers and defending their rights under the Forest Rights Act.Padaliya’s tribals run away as police begin pelting tear gas bombs and lathi charge on December 13, 2025. Photo: By arrangementHomeless and helpless“We haven’t left our homes empty since December. We were pushed out of our villages and homes, we can’t let them oust us from our ancestral lands” says Shakariben Parmar, a local of Padaliya.Parmar speaks while looking at her three children, “There were officers everywhere, as far as we could see, they forcefully entered the village with equipment and JCBs [bulldozers]. Everyone in our village could sense that something wrong was going to happen.”Upon the arrival of a large troop of officers, surprised and anxious villagers collected at the site and objected to the plantation work, explaining to the officers that the process of settlement of forest rights was still pending and that the Gram Sabha had already identified claimants under the Forest Rights Act, including the holder of the land in question. As villagers began confronting the officials, Parmar recalls that the police used lathis and teargas bombs to scatter the villagers. As shrieks echoed and people ran, Shankerbhai, a local of the neighbouring Kanpura village, said that all of them reached Padaliya as fast as they could. People from other neighbouring villages such as Chikanvas and Dabheli also swiftly arrived in Padaliya upon hearing about the incident. “Then they began beating and attacking the elders of our village, soon everyone was angry,” he said. Pushpaben, Shakariben’s neighbour, was infuriated by the police action. “If they are right and we are illegal, why was there no prior declaration about this eviction they carried out in the name of plantation. Why weren’t we handed prior notices or time periods to vacate if we are wrong? This is thievery, it is our land,” she said.At the core of this conflict sits a 45-hectare plot claimed by Parmar, the area which falls under the Balaram-Ambaji Wildlife Sanctuary. Believed to be occupied by Parmar’s family from the Dungri Garasiya tribe since the last three or four generations, a part of the land was cleared by officials in December 2025, when they demolished her hut. After the March incident, an FIR was registered naming 26 persons and approximately 500 “unknown persons” in connection with offences including unlawful assembly, rioting, obstruction of public servants and damage to public property. Meanwhile, a written complaint submitted by Parmar – alleging illegal eviction, destruction of her dwelling and physical assault by officials – has not resulted in the registration of a corresponding FIR till date.Padaliya’s tribals in the fields of their village in December 2025. Photo: By arrangement.Fact-finding team’s opinionA fact-finding team of the Gujarat unit of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) visited Padaliya village on December 24, 2025 to investigate the incident. The team interacted with Shakari Ben, other villagers, the Sarpanch and local officials, and examined documentary material including FIR records, village-level forest rights documentation and administrative communications. The team also inspected the disputed land where the incident occurred.The fact-finding inquiry indicates that the Padaliya incident cannot be viewed solely as a law and order event. The available evidence suggests that the confrontation arose due to unresolved forest rights claims and administrative actions/omissions related to land under dispute. The findings raise serious concerns regarding the implementation of the Forest Rights Act, the use of force during the operation, and the subsequent criminalization of the village residents en masse.The PUCL fact-finding team stated that the nodal authorities must ensure strict adherence to the provisions of the Forest Rights Act, halt any coercive action on land under pending claims until due process is completed, and undertake an impartial inquiry into the events of December 13, 2025.Villagers have claimed that the demolition of the hut belonging to Shakariben Parmar, and the alleged filling of a well on the same plot was done without prior notice despite a recent collector’s circular advising against displacing tribal people occupying land from before 2006.The clash sits at the fault line of a long-running legal and administrative friction. The FRA recognises forest-dwelling communities’ rights to land, habitation and community forest resources and vests powers in gram sabhas to claim and manage those rights. Implementing the FRA has repeatedly collided with the forest department’s conservation priorities and revenue/state actions. Disputes over who has the right to occupy or cultivate forest land, and whether departmental plantation or protection drives require prior consultation with claimants, have produced protests and court cases across India.Prasad Chacko speaks to tribals from Padaliya at a meeting in Gujarat’s Palanpur. Photo: Tarushi Aswani.Ahmedabad-based social activist Prasad Chacko, who was a part of the fact finding team, told The Wire, “As a part of the fact finding committee, I have interacted with the displaced Bhils of Danta, who continue to feel threatened since December 2025. The way they were ousted is a great disservice to the FRA as well as the Bhil community who live in symbiosis with the environment.”Senior advocate Anand Yagnik, representing those who were jailed post the altercation between the tribal community and the police in the Gujarat high court, said that the matter has many layers which need to be carefully understood. “Here is a matter where there are 172 individuals who have requested for applications for the initiation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) process. These requests have been made across all levels: from the village level to the sub-divisional level, the district level, and even to the Deputy Collector”. He explained to The Wire how for the last two years, these forms were not provided to the claimants and in the meantime, the forest department and police became aware that these 172 individuals in Padaliya are cultivating land within the Balaram Sanctuary, and subsequently, they started making inroads. “A female forest officer demolished the home of a widow, Shakariben, who lived in a small tenement. Shakariben has three young children who are currently in school. What did she own? A small makeshift home, 2 matkas. Her husband died three years ago while digging a well during the monsoon. The family relies on a maize crop which is just four months of agriculture and spends the remaining 8 months of the year as seasonal labour. During the demolition, even the children’s schoolbags were buried under the debris,” he said.Erasing AdivasisIn February 2026, according to an official reply given in the Rajya Sabha to an unstarred question by MP Sanjay Singh, Gujarat had 1,560 proposals cleared under the Van (Sanrakshan Evam Samvardhan) Adhiniyam, 1980, between April 1, 2020, and March 31, 2025. This is the highest number of clearances among all states and Union Territories. Gujarat is also among the states leading in terms of forest area diverted for non-forest activities, with 6,850.11 hectares diverted over the same period.Gova Rathod, an environmental activist and PUCL member, said that there is a persistent notion among bureaucrats and the administration that tribal communities may not be able to manage forests effectively. “It is globally well-established that tribals are essential stakeholders in saving forests and the environment. There is a symbiotic relationship: Tribals, flora, and fauna go hand in hand” he told The Wire.Rathod also recalled that in 2008, Gujarat’s Police Officers opened fire at tribals who were claiming their land in Vijaynagar’s Polo Forest. Two innocent individuals were killed in that confrontation. This specific tragedy, he believes, was what catalyzed the implementation of the Forest Rights Act (FRA) in the state, leading to 2 lakh people beginning their claiming process.Rathod also explains how by 2011, many tribal land claims were summarily dismissed by the administration. In 2013, the Adivasi Mahasabha (a tribal rights collective) approached the Gujarat high court. The court subsequently ordered the Forest Department to review the rejected claims, acknowledging procedural lapses. “The core objective of the FRA was to hand over the management of forests to Gram Sabhas (village councils). But neither the government nor the administration understood or implemented this true objective in the last 20 years. It is visible across India that since the FRA’s inception, forests are increasingly being diverted for commercial and state interests rather than being protected for tribal use” he said.Rathod also used the Statue of Unity as an example for the same, how it utilises surrounding forest and riverine land for extensive eco-tourism development, including a five-acre Vishwa Van (Global Forest), a two-acre Miyawaki forest, and specialized areas like the 25-acre Cactus Garden. He also added that the Taranga Hill-Abu Road Railway Line – a specific 116.65 km project currently under construction (planned for 2024–2027) – traverses Banaskantha (Danta) and requires the diversion of significant forest land. “For tribals, land is a matter of life and ancestral identity. For the government; it is viewed as ‘plain business and trade’, they are turning common property into private or state assets,” he said.“What was the police doing there?”Danta MLA Kanti Kharadi alleged that tribals were not being given certificates under the Forest Rights Act and their applications were pending in huge numbers in Banaskantha district. “Shakariben’s family’s home is older than the Forest Rights Act itself. They settled on the land before 2006, when the FRA was enacted, and they are entitled to the rights they had on their land. The demolition of her home and police presence in the area during this demolition must be investigated,” Kharadi told The Wire.As Kharadi and many tribals from Padaliya, whom The Wire spoke to, have demanded strict action against the instigation that the local police indulged in. In the Gujarat high court, the local police was recently called-out for their misdemeanour during a hearing.Yagnik on April 14 while appearing for the accused argued that the whole act of the Forest Department bringing the police to demolish tribal homes and begin plantation was a total non-starter since their claims were already pending with the forest department.Justice Nikhil S. Kariel was hearing the matter of the bail of the three jailed tribal men from Padaliya. During the hearing, Yagnik further stated that the state of Gujarat had accepted that there was one such incident wherein the area of one claimant was also involved in the proposed plantation area and that the action was ‘inadvertent’ and necessary directions have been issued by the chairperson of the district level committee in this regard. Yagnik also stated during the hearing that in Banaskantha district, as per information provided by State Government of Gujarat (as on 31st July 2025), in Banaskantha District, a total of 10,272 claims (9,488 Individuals and 784 community) have been filed at the Gram Sabha level, out of which a total of 7,403 claims have been approved (6,619 Individuals and 784 Community). Further, a total of 2,869 claims are pending for decision and there is no rejection of claims.Following this, Justice Kariel reprimanded the public prosecutor and asked about the need for police officials in the area. “Why did the forest officers try to use force? Why was the civil administration not involved? Why was that? If there was any dispute then why was the civil administration not involved? Why were they not involved to try and find a solution and why did they go with these troops?” Kariel asked.The high court also asked the government why the administration was in such a hurry to plant trees when the claims were pending. “Was this action intended to displace the tribals?” The court further questioned why the executive magistrate was taken along and if there were any preparations underway for firing.The court stated, “This is not a border; these are your own citizens.” It questioned the administration’s approach, asking why a show of force was carried out in front of civilians. Kariel further questioned the police, “What was the reason for needling the citizens unnecessarily. Was this really required?”The state has requested time to submit a response. The matter will next be heard on April 27.The conflict of interests in Padaliya remains unresolved as legal proceedings continue against the tribals. While the state maintains its focus on reforestation within the Balaram-Ambaji Wildlife Sanctuary, the Dungri Garasiya tribe continues to challenge the legality of these drives with their claims under the Forest Rights Act still pending. With homes destroyed and criminal charges pending, the village remains in a state of high tension, awaiting a formal settlement of the land rights that sit at the centre of this dispute.