navi mumbai a major chunk of the about 1250 acres of land that had been acquired by the maharashtra industrial development corporation midc for a copper smelter plant from zadgaon and shirgaon village in ratnagir is instead being used by midc for the auctioning of mangoes once every three years as the land is producing premium alphonso mangoes seeing this business opportunity the ratnagiri aluminium prakalp vadhit shetkari sangh has demanded the farm land be returned sesa sterlite ltd sterlite a vedanta group company is fighting a court battle with the midc for the 515 acre land given to them in 1992the farmers body ratnagiri aluminium prakalp vadhit shetkari sangh had organized a meeting on december 29 2022 weighing its legal options on how to get back the land or obtain higher compensation for it zadgaons deceased farmer ali ghulam rasool kazi had lost over 28 acres of the land with the alphonso mango trees to midc one of his sons abdul salam ali kazi 68 said my father had 500 alphonso mango trees on our land and had planted another 500 saplings when the land was acquired for meagre prices now around 350 alphonso mango saplings are there with a cow shed etc the midc has been auctioning the mangoes hence we demand our land back the farmers body chairman yunus padvekar 71 questioned the midc had acquired the land to sell alphonso mangoes or to build a copper plant the very purpose of the land acquisition even after 50 years has been lost midc executive engineer sachin rakshe said the alphonso mango auction happens once every three years however he did not reveal the quantity and auction price shirgaon farmer ashok kher who had lost 64 acres of land to midc has moved the bombay hc demanding that the land be returned his counsel advocate owais pechkar said it is better for midc to hand return the land to the farmers instead of owning the mango orchard and conducting the auction