Thousands of people from the ten villages of the Gorai-Uttan belt blocked road and water transport to Essel World on Sunday to protest against the proposed Special Entertainment Zone (SEZ) spread over 14,183 acres in the area. Pan India Paryatan Ltd, which owns Essel World on a 65 acres plot at Gorai, has already received an in-principle approval from the Union Ministry of Commerce for phase one of the plan that will be on 1,000 acres of land. Over 300 fishing boats and ferries took guard at the Gorai creek from where ferries usually cart people coming from Borivli and all places to Essel World. A sea of villagers from all ten villagers converged at the other end blocking the road to the entertainment park. "We want to show them what it is like to lose a day's income when our people are set to lose their livelihood. The proposed zone will extend 2 kms into the sea. This will destroy the fishing and salt production,' said Joseph Gonsalves, president of the Dharavi Beth Bachao Samiti. The ten villages of Manori, Gorai , Uttan, Pali, Chowk, Dongri, Tarodi, Rai, Morva, Murdhe form the Dharavi Island. These villages are home to about 1.25 lakh people. Two third of the inhabitants here are from the koli community (fishermen), the original settlers of Mumbai while rest are Agris (salt-pan workers) and Kumhis (farmers). "My ancestors were born and buried here. No amount of money will convince us to part with the land that feeds us,' said Joanna D'Mello a vegetable vendor who came for the protest along with her four grown-up daughters. "The SEZ will affect so many people who have been living here for hundreds of years. This is besides the damage that will be done to the environment,' said Sister Padma Chettiyar who teaches at school in Uttan Chowk. The protestors were joined by the SEZ Virodh Sangharsh from Raigad district which is set to have the most number of SEZs in the state. Like Rajan Jamshe and Dilip Patil both farmers holding small parcels of lands. "Those from 45 villages in Raigad are living under the threat of losing their land anytime. Our agitation is on over there. We decided to join the protestors here to demand that the in-principle approval given for the entertainment SEZ be withdrawn,' said Vaishali Patil who is part of the agitation in Raigad. Nilesh Mistry, senior vice-president for corporate affairs at Essel Group, said that the entertainment park was kept open on Sunday for the few who reached the park early in the morning. "Our idea is to have an entertainment and recreation zone for families. This is part of the social infrastructure that is usually provided by the government in other countries,' said Mistry adding that they would be forming a joint venture with the Maharashtra Tourism Development Board for the project. "Our purpose is not to take away anybody's land but to preserve the heritage and promote tourism based activities so that people from all over the world can come here to see it,' said Mistry.