The Madhya Pradesh Police on Sunday (July 19, 2026) morning cleared the site where several tribals have been protesting against the Ken-Betwa river link project and other irrigation projects in Chhatarpur district, and took the protest leader Amit Bhatnagar, who has been on a hunger strike for 14 days, to a hospital.

The police also dismantled the protest site, on the banks of Barana river near Kupi village, and symbolic pyres used by the demonstrators, with officers saying that the decision to bring them out of water was taken due to rising water levels after heavy rains in the area.

However, several protestors refused to move, accusing the police of forcibly removing them and assaulting women. Videos also showed personnel dragging women away from the shore.

Chhatarpur Additional SP Aditya Patle said, “He [Mr. Bhatnagar] had been protesting here for many days so a team of doctors had come here with the police and the administration for his basic medical check-up. He himself was interested in this and had contacted [the authorities] that his health was deteriorating a little. So, a team of police force, doctors and administration came here and he has been peacefully sent to the hospital.”

Mr. Patle also said that the women at the protest site have been dropped to their homes in buses.

“This is an under construction bridge here and the water levels of the river are also rising due to rain. This place is not safe so they were moved from here,” he said, adding that the protesters “cooperated” with the authorities.

Videos emerged from the scene showed protestors, mostly women, holding each other in attempts to cross the river amid heavy water flow even as personnel ask them to come ashore.

Residents of several villages, mostly tribals from Panna and Chhatarpur districts, had been protesting on the banks of the Barana River near Kupi village for nearly two weeks against the ₹44,000-crore project of the Union Government and various State irrigation projects, with several demonstrators tying nooses around their necks and lying on makeshift pyres in the river in a symbolic protest.

The unique demonstration, with the slogan of ‘nyaya do varna maar do [either give us justice or kill us]’, that had been first carried out in April, was relaunched earlier this month after the discussions and government efforts failed to convince the villagers.

Their demands include improved rehabilitation and compensation packages along with the adding of people allegedly left out of the displacement survey.

The removal of the protest site and ending Mr. Bhatnagar’s hunger strike in the early hours of Sunday (July 19, 2026) comes a day after the Delhi Police, in a similar move on Saturday (July 18, 2026), forcibly removed activist Sonam Wangchuk from his Jantar Mantar protest site on the 21st day of his indefinite hunger strike. Mr. Wangchuk, along with the Cockroach Janta Party and its supporters, is demanding the resignation of Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan over the alleged irregularities in several examinations.

Opposition slams police action

Madhya Pradesh Leader of Opposition Umang Singhar slammed the police action while alleging that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “has made suppressing every dissenting voice its governing mode.”

He demanded immediate release of all the detained protestors, including Mr. Bhatnagar, while also seeking an independent probe into the allegations related to the Ken-Betwa project.

“Asking questions in a democracy is not a crime, but the BJP government has made suppressing every dissenting voice its governing model. The government fears those protesters who do not fear the government. The government chose the path of suppression over dialogue,” the Congress leader said on X.

“The BJP government must understand that democracy runs not on sticks and arrests, but on dialogue and the Constitution. The way action has been taken on peaceful protests over two consecutive days is a clear signal that the country is being pushed not towards democracy, but towards dictatorship and an atmosphere of fear,” Mr. Singhar said, comparing the action in Madhya Pradesh to that of the Delhi Police against Mr. Wangchuk.