India, April 16 -- In Sikandarpur Narkatra village of Hardoi district, Uttar Pradesh, gloom hangs over the house of Kallu. The family has still not been able to forget the morning of December 21, 2025, when Kallu received information that the body of his son Rajkumar was hanging from a tree in a field adjacent to the village.

Kallu curses the day when the government started chakbandi in their village. Chakbandi refers to the process of rearranging small, scattered agricultural holdings to reduce land fragmentation, promote mechanisation of agriculture for increasing yield, improve irrigation facilities, road network and public infrastructure.

Kallu says that land consolidation started in his village a year ago, but irregularities in the...