In the last week of December, when the world was celebrating Christmas and New Year, Kusum Kisan Babar, 50, was petrified that her tenement in Babar Pada tribal hamlet in Gorai, a Mumbai suburban village, would be torn down. “Since the Shivaji museum project was announced [in mid-2023], there have been several visits by Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) staff along with police,” said Ms. Babar, who belongs to the 300-strong Warli population that lives in the hamlet, of about 1,300 Warlis in Gorai.
She adds that she feels extremely insecure: “There is the constant fear of losing the land my ancestors left us.” Her three sons and two daughters, with their families, have houses on the forested land that she said the tribe had populated with fruit trees. Ms. Babar, who lives with another daughter, grows vegetables and catches crabs to sell them in Borivali market in Mumbai.
On June 5, 2023, the Maharashtra Department of Tourism announced the construction of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj War Art Museum across 136 acres of land in Gorai with a budget of Rs. 50 crore. The boundary wall of the museum is being constructed, and a few houses have been demolished.
