New Delhi: On Sunday (July 19) morning, police forcibly removed protesting villagers from the Barana river and its banks near Kupi village in Madhya Pradesh’s Chhattarpur district.The villagers, predominantly people from indigenous communities, have been protesting against the Ken-Betwa river interlinking project since July 3, and demanding fair compensation for their lands and homes that they will lose to the project. They had been protesting by laying on wooden funeral pyres on the banks of the Barana river (a tributary of the river Ken) and wearing loose nooses around their necks. Protestors dispersedIn a video published by PTI on July 19, police personnel can be seen rounding up protestors across the Barana river and dispersing them.VIDEO | Madhya Pradesh police removed protesters and ended the ‘satyagraha’ that was launched against the Ken-Betwa Link Project and other irrigation schemes.The protest, mainly by tribal women, was being held on the banks of the Barana river near Kupi village in Chhatarpur… pic.twitter.com/8cyMPglsJm— Press Trust of India (@PTI_News) July 19, 2026Another PTI video shows police dismantling the wooden pyres that protestors had erected for their agitation on the banks of the Barana river. Women protestors can be seen arguing with police personnel. Police carried away social activist Amit Bhatnagar, who is leading the agitation, to hospital. Bhatnagar is on his 13th day of hunger strike.“I will not break my hunger strike, even if I have to lose my life,” Bhatnagar said at the hospital. “If they force feed me, then I will stop drinking water and taking breaths.”“If talking about democracy, the Constitution and rights are crimes, then not only Amit Bhatnagar but every youth, every affected person will repeat these ‘crimes’ over and over again,” Divya Ahirwar, one of the protestors in the agitation said in a statement.‘For their safety’However, police personnel insisted that protestors were dispersed peacefully and that it was for their own safety.“A team of doctors came here along with the police and the administration so that they could conduct a basic medical check-up…The women who were present here were also peacefully seated in buses and dropped back to their homes because this is an under-construction bridge, and due to the rains, the river’s water level has risen. Therefore, the area was not considered safe, so they were moved from the site,” PTI quoted Aditya Patle, ASP Chhatarpur, as saying.People from several villages in Chhattarpur and Panna districts of Madhya Pradesh first took to the unusual means of protest – laying on pyres, smearing mud on their faces, tying themselves to wooden crosses and wearing loose nooses around their necks – along the banks of the Barana river in early April. However, they discontinued their agitation on April 17 after authorities promised to look into their demands which included receiving fair compensation. Lack of action by authorities led to villagers renewing their protest on July 3.