2019 Daman indigenous land clearing protests
Seafront land in Daman owned by local adivasi fishing communities was confiscated by Praful Khoda Patel and homes bulldozed resulting in protester and arrests for billionaire Binod Chaudhary's resort offering tourist accommodation for $80US per night
On 3 November 2019, Daman Collector Rakesh Minhas issued a Section 144 order banning assembly of four or more persons, slogan-shouting and the use of loudspeakers across the entire district of Daman, India and ordered the conversion of Government High School, Bhimpore and the Government Sarvottam High School, Moti Daman into 'temporary jails'. This was in response to a land ownership dispute between the local indigenous fishing community and the local administration that had confiscated their land and bulldozed their homes. The ensuing protest resulted with the detention of 70 protesters in the 'temporary jails' and another 8 arrests. Few of the adivasi fisherfolk were rehoused whilst most languished traumatised and homeless on the streets near the rubble of their razed homes.
Demolition of indigenous people's homes
Valuable seafront land along the 700-metre (2,300 ft) stretch from Moti Daman Lighthouse to Jampore beach is claimed to be owned by adivasi fishing communities who have lived there for generations as well as by NRI Damanese predominantly living in Leicester, UK.
In December 2018, local residents received official looking documents purportedly instructed by Praful Khoda Patel ordering the confiscation of the land and ordering the demolition of the homes to make way for development.
With 11,000 Damanese living the Leicester East constituency, members of the community approached their MP Keith Vaz, who flew out to Daman to meet the Administrator Praful Khoda Patel. In January 2019 Vaz reported back that, "I had a very constructive discussion with Mr Patel. I believe that Mr Patel has a vision for Daman and he wants to develop it as a tourist and education centre. I was particularly impressed by the commitments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to enhance the development of Daman. Mr Patel promised that there would be no further demolitions until after the court has made its ruling and that he would talk to me about any further matters concerning this issue.
“2019 Daman indigenous land clearing protests” enters the record as seafront land in Daman owned by local adivasi fishing communities was confiscated by Praful Khoda Patel and homes bulldozed resulting in protester and arrests for billionaire Binod Chaudhary's resort offering tourist accommodation for $80US per night. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Daman, indigenous and land can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q105986945. The first chronological checks are 2019 and 2018.
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