At a special meeting on Monday, at the local temple attended by almost all the villagers, the people opposed this decision taken by government.

Golavali is a small village in Sattari having about 60 houses and mostly agricultural in nature. The villagers claim that the biodiversity reserved category will badly impact development in the future. “Why has only our village been included in this proposal and not other villages having similar aspects?” villager Narayan Khot asked.

“All the people are demanding that this reserved category be removed from our village as we will face hurdles. The government should see to this, otherwise we will have no option other than taking to the streets to survive,” villager Laxman Khot said.

Shrikant Khot, another villager, said that due to this the people can’t even worship at the Siddeshwar temple which has been a tradition from over 100 years. “It is not accepted by the villagers and we want our demand to be fulfilled as early as possible,” he said.