Oxford's plan for overseas campus in land-grab row

Oxford University’s plans to set up a new overseas campus in India has run into rough weather with human rights campaigners accusing the developers of resorting to 'land grab', media reported on Sunday. The Indian developers of the 12,500-acre Lavasa site, about 200 km from Mumbai, have been accused of intimidating indigenous farmers into selling their land and of pressing them to accept rock-bottom prices, The Sunday Times claimed.

The lakeside land to be covered by Lavasa comprised about 20 villages, farms and forest. An estimated 4,000 to 5,000 people have so far left, many allegedly under pressure, the report said.

Medha Patkar, a human rights activist at the forefront of villagers’ campaign, described Lavasa as a “land grab”. 

She claimed “people are threatened... Made to feel like criminals. They cannot survive there unless they submit so they sell their land for the prices offered.”

Meanwhile, Lavasa said the allegations of fraud and coercion as “fabricated, false and without basis”, adding that most of the city land had belonged to absentee landlords and said it had provided housing to displaced people. 

Oxford plans to offer courses for Indian executives in the education centre in Lavasa, a privately managed city modelled on hill stations built by the Raj.

The Girls’ Day Schools Trust, a private education chain, will establish a boarding school there.