Paper short abstract:

The periurban people of Sriperumbudur finds that their lives are at stake every day with increasing infrastructure around, both state and private. The roads and paths that lead them to homes vanish with passing days. Their mobility to the world outside gets harsher and connections poorer.

Paper long abstract:

Viji was angry as he showed me the highway barely any distance from where he was lying drunk on the coat next to his house. He was mad because the only thing that was between his home and the highway was some thorny bushes. He was angry because these were vast stretches of land they roamed freely a few years ago. This is the plight of most people of Katchipatt village. Many roads that connected them to the other neighbouring communities are blocked, and they are islanded and isolated with every passing day. Their bonds with neighbouring villages have almost disappeared, relationships have been broken. Working across the village I found, their earlier sources of income from other communities were wholly cut off as decreased socialisation, increased hostility with once-friendly villages around. They had to travel miles now to reach the neighbouring villages, which were barely a stone distance away. Katichipatt is bypassed by two highways on either sides, a national monument completely shutting down one part of their village, another end blocked by special economic zone, large MNCs all around them, encroached fenced real estate creeping around, they are in fear, when they would be evicted of their land, and the village would disappear from map with their stories. The tears of Viji represents the voice of everyone willing to cry off their plight, getting drunk being the only option to distract themselves of their daily struggle