The tribals light their way with a torch, as the streetlights stop working just 100 metres outside their village. Pics/Satej Shinde

Even animals have it better than the tribal residents inside the Bombay Veterinary College campus in Goregaon. "We've been living here for four generations; the college only came up in 1978. Now, the animals in the college get electricity and water, but we are deprived of these basic facilities," said Rakesh Shigvan, 39.

This is hardly some remote village - the 65 families living in the tribal hamlets of Navshacha pada and Jitunika pada are just half a kilometre away from the Western Express Highway, nearly at the mouth of the 135-acre college campus. Infuriatingly, there's plenty of water and power to be had just 100 metres from their homes, but none of it is for them. When they need to wash clothes, the villagers go to the nearby cowsheds, and when they need electricity, they're forced to steal it from the college transformer.