Bengaluru: Villagers in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna district have renewed their protests, along the banks of the Ken river, against several infrastructure projects including the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project. September 26 marked the 15th day of the protest. Their main concern with most projects is inadequate and incomplete compensation, protestors told The Wire. They are not against some of these projects per se, but the compensation promised to families have not come through, leaving them with no homes to live in and no means of livelihood, they said.Their means of protest, like before, are unusual: lying on symbolic funeral pyres on the river banks (or chita andolan), wearing loose nooses around their necks as they stand in knee-deep water (sooli andolan), and smearing mud on their faces (mitti andolan).Protests renewed Villagers in Chhattarpur district first took to these unusual means of protests in April this year, to express their dissent against the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project. The project, primarily aimed at addressing the drinking water shortage in the water-stressed Bundelkhand region involves constructing dams along the river Ken, and transferring this water to the river Betwa via a 230-km long pipeline or canal. The dams are expected to submerge forest land, agricultural land and villages; per some estimates, it will affect more than 20 villages, displacing people comprising mostly Adivasi communities in the Chhattarpur and Panna districts of Madhya Pradesh. Protestors had raised concerns about both the lack of adequate compensation that was being offered for affected families and proper rehabilitation schemes.Villagers discontinued protests on April 16 after authorities promised that their demands would be looked into. But they restarted their protests on July 3 near Kupi in Chhattarpur district because the state government did not take the action they promised to. Peoples’ homes were demolished because the administration allegedly wanted them to move away from living on the banks of the Ken river and relocate to a ‘safer’ place. Villagers, however, have said that they were being forcibly evicted from their homes. The July protest ended abruptly on July 19, when police forcibly removed protesting villagers from the Barana river and its banks. The protest had also involved a two-week hunger strike by Amit Bhatnagar, a social activist with a farmer’s organisation called the Jai Kisan Sanghatan, who is leading the protests. Social activist Amit Bhatnagar is leading the protest at the Majhgai dam in Panna, Madhya Pradesh. Photo: Jai Kisan SanghathanBhatnagar suspended his hunger strike on July 23, because authorities had shown a “positive attitude”, promising to visit every village affected by the project and identify people whose names have not been included in the list for compensation, he said. A representative of the Jai Kisan Organisation will also be part of this process, the protestors were told.Inadequate and incomplete compensationOn September 12, villagers renewed protests along the river Ken in Panna district near the Majhgai dam to raise the issue of inadequate and incomplete compensation for families affected by four infrastructure projects in the region (the Runjh dam, the Majhgai dam and the Lalitpur-Singrauli railway line). The Majhgai and Runjh dams are medium irrigation projects built on tributaries of the river Ken as part of the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project.Around 50,000 people across nearly 50 villages are losing their homes and lands due to the displacement caused by these projects, Bhatnagar told The Wire. While each family is to be given a compensation package of 12.5 lakh rupees, many have received only small portions of the payment, while others are not even on the compensation list despite being affected by the projects, he said. Bhatnagar also told The Wire that villagers had not given their consent via their gram sabhas (which is mandatory under the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996). Villagers have also not been given their title deeds under the Forest Rights Act (the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers Act, 2006) yet, Bhatnagar said. The Act mandates that no forest dweller can be evicted from their lands, and that government or private agencies cannot take possession of these lands for a project until all individual and community forest rights are settled and recognized.“It is this illegality that we are protesting against. We are not against these projects per se, in fact, we need some of them. And the construction of these projects is almost complete, so there is no point opposing them. What we need is justice and that the government implement these projects legally, and provide adequate and complete compensation to all affected families,” he told The Wire. More than 200 villagers from across the district are taking part in the ongoing protest. And they are holding the chief minister of the BJP-governed state, Mohan Yadav, and the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, accountable for the government not taking enough action regarding their concerns about inadequate compensation and legal courses.“Modi-Mohan come to your senses,” one slogan goes, as the protestors stand in knee-deep water. “We will not tolerate this. We will not tolerate the exploitation of adivasis. Put reins on this corruption.”Due to heavy rainfall over the past few days, the water level in the Majhgai dam has risen, submerging parts of several local villages including Madliya, Tapariyan, Kunwarpur, Bahneri, Judar, Sarra, and Kariya Khet as of September 26. Residents also said that the flooding had destroyed houses, standing crops, and grain reserves.“We have nothing now,” said Rani Rekhwa, whose home on the banks of the Majhgai dam was demolished, and whose temporary hut was affected by rising flood waters. “We now belong to nowhere.”Allegations of threats against protestorsMeanwhile, 15 days of protests in knee-deep muddy river water has taken its toll. Protestors have colds and coughs, and wounds on their feet. Many are also complaining of itching and skin problems. The protest is also about the concerns regarding the impacts that the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project will have in the area, Bhatnagar told The Wire. “Villagers are losing everything, their lands, forests, homes, villages. This protest is also about the environmental impacts that the Ken-Betwa project will cause including the submergence of forest land,” he said.Villagers have been demanding fair compensation ever since the project was mooted and subsequently cleared by the Union cabinet in 2021. A villager in Sukwaha village in Chhattarpur district had told The Wire in July 2021 that people would start protesting if they were not adequately compensated for their lands. Many also did not want to leave their ancestral homes.Protestors raising slogans while standing in the waters of the river Ken in the Majhgai dam in September 2026. Photo: Jai Kisan SanghathanBhatnagar and other protestors also allege that state authorities are trying to arm-twist them into stopping the protest. “Police are picking out and harassing the relatives of people participating in the protest, especially relatives who are working in government offices in the district,” Bhatnagar told The Wire. State authorities have also cut electricity and water supplies to the homes of many protestors, he alleged.Villagers had also alleged during their last round of protests in July that fake cases were filed against around 250 protestors, but that they were partaking in the protests despite this because it was a question of livelihoods and survival.