This article is based on a visit to Mundra taluka of Kutch district, Gujarat in January 2011 to understand first hand the plunder of common property resources. It focuses on the Mundra Port and special economic zone developed by the Adani Group and a thermal power plant of OPG Power and their impact on different sections of the local community.

Despite being dotted with industries, Gujarat's rich coastline is plagued by voices of dissent. Coastal communities have of late realised that the fruits of industrialisation were either too sour, or not for them at all.

The environmental campaign in Dahanu near Mumbai against the capacity MW plant started in the 1980s and ultimately led to the setting up of the Dahanu Taluka Environment Protection Authority. Even as competing lobbies continue to push for the de-notification of its status as an ecologically fragile region and removal of the Dahanu Authority the environmentalists walk a tight rope attempting to protect the natural resource base of the region.

Seven years after the 2004 tsunami, with the coastal communities in Tamil Nadu yet to reconcile with its after-effects, another disaster is gradually unfolding. A massive relief and rehabilitation campaign, largely driven by private aid with the state playing a mere regulatory role, has opened up the coast for investment, making it a most attractive zone for a new kind of disaster capitalism with ultra mega industrial projects of ports, thermal power plants and petrochemical industries. An investment-led growth regime