The remote hamlet of Madban, perched on the rugged coastline along the Arabian Sea, is on the frontline of a battle raging in India between industrialisation and farming.
In this lush region with its mango orchards and cashew plantations, farmers have risen up in recent months against the plans of the French state-owned company Areva to build the world's largest nuclear power station.
They fear the radioactive waste from the 10,000 megawatt station could pollute the alluvial soil and devastate the region's rich biodiversity.
The state government of Maharashtra, led by the chief minister Prithviraj Chavan, says those concerns are unfounded. Mr Chavan last month visited the region with scientists and nuclear experts, arguing the 1 trillion rupee (Dh81.49 billion) project was badly needed to meet the state's growing electricity demand. But his efforts to pacify protesters failed.
What also vexes farmers is the acquisition of more than 900 hectares of their land, mostly barren, for the construction of the plant. Of the more than 2,300 farmers whose lands have been acquired, fewer than 5 per cent have accepted the government's compensation package.
Hundreds of protesting farmers have been arrested in recent weeks, many in overnight raids by the local police.
As India's GDP grows at a rapid rate the country is building up a voracious appetite for industry. But in a country where agriculture is the mainstay, employing more than two thirds of its 1.2 billion people, the government faces stiff resistance from millions of farmers unwilling to hand over their land.
Such disputes have jeopardised hundreds of industrial projects around the country and are thwarting government efforts to modernise India's crumbling infrastructure.
About 70 per cent of infrastructure projects in India face delays caused by land acquisition disputes, according to a report titled India Infrastructure - Paving the Way for India's
Growth, released jointly last April by Ernst & Young and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
A 2009 report by the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India said land acquisition procedures were threatening to endanger investments worth US$100bn (Dh367.29bn) across the country.
"Every company I talk to tells me land titles and land records present some of the thorniest problems they face as they contemplate investing here in India," Jose Fernandez, the US assistant secretary of state for economic, energy and business affairs, told the Indo-American Chamber of Commerce last week.
In 2008, Tata Motors announced it was suspending construction of its Nano factory, planned to be built on 405ha of farmland in Singur, West Bengal, after it was unable to quell violent farmer protests.
Tata wanted to use the land to build the world's cheapest car, the Nano, which was launched in the same year with a $2,500 price tag. The backlash forced it to shift the project to the western state of Gujarat.
Delays in obtaining the environmental clearances mandatory for all industrial projects is another hurdle for industry.
Last year, the environment ministry headed by Jairam Ramesh refused to approve a $1.7bn project by Vedanta of the UK to mine bauxite in the tribal regions of Orissa in eastern India. It also cited environmental concerns for stalling approval of the $12bn plant by the South Korean steel maker Posco in the same state.
In Gujarat, India's fastest-growing state, environmental concerns have stalled property projects worth 150bn rupees, the country's property developers association says.
Over the past five years the global steel giant ArcelorMittal, based in Luxembourg, has been scrambling for 2,850ha of land to set up steel mills in the iron-rich tribal areas of Jharkhand and Orissa, but its efforts have so far failed.
"We are keen that the steel industry should flourish and the projects should be completed, but there are inherent difficulties," the former steel minister Virbhadra Singh warned in January. "Wherever land acquisition and environment clearance are concerned, the projects are piling up."
Mr Singh has expressed reservations about meeting India's target of producing 120 million tonnes of steel annually by the end of next year, nearly double last year's target.
Project delays, Mr Singh said, could spark a "chain reaction" and deter foreign investors from India.
The signs are already visible. Last year, foreign direct investment in India fell 32 per cent from 2009 to $24bn. Foreign institutional investors withdrew $1.65bn since January.
India needs $1tn of investments over the next six years for infrastructure projects. The urban development minister Kamal Nath says India suffers an "infrastructure deficit".
The country's choked ports, shoddy airports, and roads and highways with large potholes shave between 1 and 2 per cent from its GDP.
Less than half of India's national road network is paved, causing traffic congestion that alone costs the economy $6bn a year.
Between April and November, only 1,007km of highway road projects could be completed because of problems in acquiring land. That is far short of the surface transport ministry's target to build 20km of roads every day.
The government is expected to initiate changes in the country's archaic land acquisition act, introduced by the British in 1894, to settle issues of procuring land from farmers.
The new legislation, expected to be tabled in parliament this year, will set guidelines and ensure land is bought at market value.
Last year, the Indian mines minister Bijoy Handique envisioned the mines and minerals act, which could be tabled in parliament this year, recommending miners share 26 per cent of profits with affected people.
Mr Handique, who was replaced in the portfolio in January, said he sought to make the levy a "social licence" for future mining leases.
The Indian regions richest in minerals are home to its poorest people. Multinational companies seeking to exploit this wealth have antagonised local tribes in recent years, prompting many to become Maoist rebels, known as Naxalites.
Between 1950 and 1991, mining has uprooted about 2.6 million people, according to the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), a research and advocacy organisation in New Delhi. Not even a quarter of them have been resettled.
CSE calls the profit-share proposal the "first step towards repairing and repaying the damages done to poor communities living on mineral-rich lands".
But mining corporations are fiercely opposed. The Federation of Indian Mineral Industries, an association of mining companies, called the proposal the "death knell" of the industry.