Rukadiya Dhangar, 47

Chikalda village, Badwani district

IT WASN’T easy to hold on, but Rukadiya Dhangar did — for over 30 years. The 47year-old from Chikalda village in Badwani district and his family are among 681 in Madhya Pradesh who steadfastly refused any compensation in lieu of the land they stood to lose if the Narmada rose and swallowed their fields. Dhangar says he only wanted land in exchange for his four acres, where he grows wheat and maize; not the cash the government offered him.

One by one, people in Chikalda and those in neighbouring villages accepted, willingly or unwillingly, what the state government had to offer. Across the state, 3,366 people accepted the government’s financial compensation. For, what was certain was that some day, the river would rise and their fields would submerge. While some people got land and moved out of their homes, others took the money they got and bought land elsewhere.

A few kilometres before Chikalda, a village of 700-odd families on the banks of the Narmada, villagers talk about Dhangar, of how “lucky” he is. He is the only one in the village eligible for the Rs 60 lakh compensation; 15 others took the first installment but turned down the second — they now stand to get Rs 15 lakh.

Dhangar is glad he held on. “People in the village are jealous. They say I am lucky; it was no luck. Hamne himmat rakhke patak rakha (I showed courage and refused to

give up the land),’’ Dhangar says. “It was not easy for me all this while. My family suffered because we had no money for my son’s treatment: he met with an accident and I had to spend Rs 4.5 lakh. There were times I wondered if I was doing the right thing... what if everyone accepted what was given to them and I would be left alone with my worries,’’ he says.

Through all these 30-odd years, as Dhangar travelled to Delhi and Bhopal, among other places, to take part in Nba-led agitations, he married, fathered four children — one son and three daughters — but “didn’t give up the fight”.

Though his “fight” was for alternative land — “Medhaji (NBA leader Medha Patkar) had said we should not settle for anything else” — the compensation of Rs 60 lakh was something he hadn’t expected. Though he is still waiting for details of the apex court judgment, he believes each of the five members of his family will get Rs 60 lakh. “Won’t we,” he asks.

His hut, which is off the main road, does not fall in the government-notified area that will be eventually submerged but his fouracre agriculture land in Gelgaon, a couple of kilometres away, will go under when the gates atop the dam in Gujarat are complete.

“Anyway, I am glad I waited. Now I will decide what to do once I get the money. Until then, I am not moving out of here,” he says.