When home is along a railway track and the bulldozer may come  

Crushed between the State and the Indian Railways, nearly one-third of the people living in Haldwani

Crushed between the State and the Indian Railways, nearly one-third of the people living in Haldwani along the tracks face an eviction threat — their homes are in danger of being razed, and the future of their schools, banks, and hospitals is in peril

Atiq Shah, 65, stands before the tree that Chirag Ali Shah is said to have meditated beneath, over 139 years ago. The story goes that such was the holiness of the Sufi saint that when people from the villages on the foothills of Kumaon visited, they always found a light glowing above him. The practice of devotees from all religions visiting has not changed, and while there is no light now, the residents of Haldwani, Uttarakhand, swear they still feel his presence.

What should have been a laidback winter Sunday in the hills, has turned into a day of stress for Mr. Shah and those residents of Haldwani who live across a 3-km stretch that the Indian Railways claims belongs to it. While the claim is not new — it first submitted this in 2007 — the extent of the land claimed has changed, going from 29 acres to 78 acres in 2017. In December 2022, the High Court of Uttarakhand gave an order that 4,365 families who had ‘encroached’ on railway land needed to be evicted within a week.

Mr. Shah is the fourth generation caretaker of the  mazar that has received the eviction notice. “The shrine dates back to 1884 and the land it’s on extends across 1.43 acres. We have land records from 1937, when the British allotted the land for this purpose,” he says, adding that this is  nazul land, implying that it belongs to the State.

He watches, as officials march towards the  mazar with survey instruments. The survey has been commissioned by Nainital’s District Magistrate (DM) Dhiraj Singh Garbiyal. The team measures land from the  mazar to the railway tracks. In between are houses with narrow lanes cutting through. They have sprung up over about 50 years. Horses, goats, and humans share space, and in community kitchens, large pots of hot chicken curry simmer on wood fires.

Many residents like Mr. Shah say they have land records from the DM’s office to prove that the land has been leased from the State. There is a government school and colleges built on this land, and an Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre.

Adjoining the  mazar is a graveyard with about a 100 graves, developed with a grant of ₹9.1 lakh from the 14th Finance Commission in 2015. A plaque says that it was inaugurated by Haldwani’s current Mayor and BJP leader Jogendra Pal Singh Rautela. “If this property was encroached upon, why would the State fund its development in the first place?” Mr. Shah says.