At the centre of all opposition is land, an emotive issue even at the best of times. The windmills, all set up, commissioned and maintained by Suzlon Energy Pvt Ltd have come primarily on government wasteland in the periphery of Jhakhou, Budia and Sindhauri villages and also on land acquired by the company from the villagers. Therein lies the problem.

In most of the villages, the government land had been lying vacant for over 400 years and had been a part of village life since then. The Maldharis or the cattle grazers, who are in great number in the region, have used it for cattle grazing for a long time.

Sindhauri, a Maldhari village, where over 80 per cent of the village is involved in cattle rearing became the epicentre of the fight against windmills.

Meghraj Gadhvi, a village elder, says, "We have a village with more than 5,000 goats and sheep and over a 1,000 buffaloes. The pavanchakkis (windmills) have taken it all. Since the windmills came up four months back, seven people have already sold their cattle and become labourers. It has wrecked disaster in our lives."

When over 300 acres of land was allotted to the company five years back, the villagers challenged the Kutch Collector's decision in the Gujarat High Court, which ruled against the petitioners. The entire village had contributed towards litigation expenses that reportedly amounted to Rs 50,000.

Even though the people of Sindhauri lost the case and the windmills came up, their resistance has given strength to the people of other nearby villages. In Budia, villagers prepared a written charter of demands articulating their concerns about the project.

Usman Sale Mohmmad, deputy Sarpanch of Budia village, says, "Our concerns like employment of local people in the various maintenance tasks, not making a way for transportation of construction material through fields, not blocking waterways and others were hardly taken note of by them."

Locals say there is no clear distinction between government land, gaucher (grazing land) and village panchayat land. In many cases, they are so very interconnected that access to one is not possible without crossing the other.