Zira in Ferozepur district became known across Punjab in 2022 when villagers began a sit-in outside a distillery and ethanol plant at Mansurwala, alleging that its effluent had contaminated the groundwater the surrounding villages drink.
The protest ran for months. Water samples were taken by residents and by official agencies and the results were disputed. The Punjab Pollution Control Board and the National Green Tribunal were both involved.
In January 2023 the state government ordered the unit closed. The company contested it in court and the litigation continued.
The Zira morcha followed the form of Punjab's agitations exactly: a permanent camp on a road, langar, a stage, rotating village jathas, and no leader in a formal sense.
It is the clearest recent example of a Punjab village population organising over groundwater rather than over crop prices, and there will be more of them.
The camp was held by villagers from a cluster of settlements around the plant and was run in the manner of the farm protests, with langar, shifts and a stage.
Both the state and the central pollution control boards took samples, and the reports were disputed by the company and by the protesters in opposite directions.
The plant remains closed and the litigation continues. The groundwater in those villages has not been remediated by anybody.