By Sharanya Gopinathan
Sometimes, you hear about cases so rare and horrifying that you just don’t know what to do with them. On Sunday, 20-year-old woman named Lalita from a village about 100 kilometers from Jodhpur, Rajasthan, was burnt alive for protesting the cutting of trees in her farm. She succumbed to her injuries this morning.
Even more shockingly, the police told ANI that the village sarpanch Ranveer Singh was one of those who murdered her. Reports also say that a revenue official named Om Prakash was amongst the group.
It feels like women have always been at the forefront of attempts to protect trees and forests. Every so often, you read reports about women who vow to protect their local forests better than men ever could, or about women like Ujiyaro Bai who spent seven year protecting forests in her state and was invited to speak at the the UN World Forestry Congress in South Africa in 2015. Some stories, however, like this gruesome and saddening event, just leave you with no words and a bad taste in your mouth.