Piyush Manush is an environmental rights defender and convener of Salem Citizen’s Forum. Through the forum, he regularly organises meetings, events and protests with local farmers and villagers whose land rights and livelihoods are endangered by mega-industrial projects in Salem district. He has been arrested numerous times in relation to his work. He was arrested on a highway near Salem city for allegedly instigating people against the Salem airport expansion project and the Salem-Chennai green corridor highway project during an event he had organised with people of the surrounding villages to protest against the projects on May 3 2018. He was taken to Omalpur police station. The projects are likely to destroy more than 2,000 hectares of agricultural land, which will negatively impact the livelihoods of farmers in that area as well as displacing them.