Paper short abstract:

I discuss two protests: on missing donkeys and on rabid dogs through which communities evade the charge of being ‘anti-development’. However, such protests make it difficult for communities to make claims about climate justice and displacement.

Paper long abstract:

In the paper, I discuss two protests: One for missing donkeys and the other for rabid dogs. These two events, seemingly unrelated, demonstrate the way local communities in the region of Southeast Pakistan have come to express their grievances against displacement. By discussing the issue of missing donkeys and rabid dogs, the communities are evading the label of being ‘anti-development’. But the manner of their protests, as well as the issues which they can protest about, does little to reveal the true extent of their displacement. This ethnographic paper discusses the constraints and limits of seeking climate justice in an area which is considered an ‘periphery’ and rarely reported in the national newspapers. For the local communities, social-media and local media has played an important role to register their protests, but such platforms are now increasingly being used by coal-companies to advertise their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the local region.