Moodabidri (outskirts of Mangalore), May 17: Ambrose Nazareth has heard of Nandigram and seen newspaper and television pictures of the violence there.

 “I know the violence there was over protests against land acquisition for a special economic zone (SEZ). It helps psychologically when people elsewhere also fight on issues similar to ours,” Ambrose says, as he looks lovingly at the banana and coconut trees that dot his two acres of lush green agricultural land.

 It is a land under threat from an SEZ.

In Moodabidri taluk, some 30km from Mangalore, a Nandigram-like battle is slowly unfolding between resolute villagers and a bureaucratic machinery that appears determined to grab their land for an SEZ.

Although there has been no significant violence yet, farmers are already talking of taking to bullets to keep their land.

“I have told the local police officers trying to forcibly evict us that they will have to put a bullet through me before they can take my land,” 67-year-old Ambrose tells a fellow farmer.

The state government plans to acquire 2,035 acres of land cutting across villages here to add to the 1,800 acres it has already taken for the Mangalore SEZ (MSEZ).

The state holds 49 per cent stakes in the MSEZ project, while a private company, IL&FS, and the Karnataka Chamber of Commerce and Industry together hold the remaining 51 per cent.

Ever since plans to take over the additional land was announced, farmers have been protesting, says Mallappa Gowda, a single father who grows gourds, mangoes and other vegetables.

The farmers have formed a group called the Krishi Bhoomi Samrakshana Samiti, which they say is not supported by any political party nor driven by any ideology other than the desire to save their land.

India’s SEZ policy, rewritten after the Nandigram violence last year, clearly forbids any forcible acquisition of land. Yet, despite obvious opposition, the government has notified 15 acres out of the 2,035 for acquisition.

The SEZ act, and the rules accompanying the law, also state that landowners must be given 30 days’ notice individually —subsequent to the notification — before their land can be acquired.

But the state government, by its own admission, handed over the 15 acres for the MSEZ on May 6 without verifying whether the individual notices were handed to the landowners. It is now presenting the farmers with a virtual fait accompli — their land, it says, must go.

On May 9, MSEZ officials arrived to survey the land for acquisition. The survey process, which administration officials admit can only be launched after the 30-day notice period, was started without many farmers having received their notice.

Some, like 64-year-old Teresa Noronha, received their notice “late on the evening of May 8”.

Farmers from the five villages that cover the 15 acres — Permude, Thenka Yekkaru, Delathabettus and Kuttathoor — have now petitioned the government stating that they have not received the mandatory 30 days’ notice.

Prabhulinga Kavalakatti, the special land acquisition officer for the MSEZ — the bureaucrat responsible for giving the final green signal for the land acquisition — said he was looking into the complaints.

“I have received their representation, and am enquiring into it,” he said.

But Kavalakatti said he could not put the survey on hold — the standard procedure when any enquiry is on — as the land had already been handed over to the MSEZ, placing the purpose of his “enquiry” under question.

Pressed on whether the land could be returned to the farmers if his enquiry found any violation of the SEZ law, Kavalakatti said: “I have no powers to stop the MSEZ from doing what they want with that land now that it has been officially transferred to them.”

Assembly elections — Moodabidri went to polls yesterday — brought temporary respite from the tension, with the model code of conduct preventing the government from taking any fresh decisions on the land acquisition.

But the farmers say they are going to fight for a “permanent solution”.

“My family has lived here for 200 years. I am not going to give up under any circumstances,” says Raghu, a farmer in Permude.

“Even if I have to give my life.”