Lake squatters gather outside their homes on Friday. Picture by Amit Datta

A quiet confidence and calm ? that could well be deceptive ? marked the mood of the Rabindra Sarobar squatters a few hours after the high court confirmed on Friday that they would have to be evicted by the month-end.

For the 20,000 squatters, Gobindapur colony is their home, and they will stay put.

?The high court has said many things in the past and the state government has threatened us many times with eviction, but we continue to remain here, don?t we?? asked 70-year-old Subal Barui, who has been living by the rail tracks for 40 years. ?This is our land, this is our home and no one has the right to throw us out.?

Barui may be old, but he is firm in his determination. ?I am old and I will not live very long,? he said. ?But if I have to be evicted, it has to be over my dead body.?

Adhir Pramanik, 25, owner of two cycle-van rickshaws, recalls the retreat of police in March in the face of opposition from the squatters. ?That time, too, they had come to drive us out, but could they?? demanded Pramanik.

He hopes the administration will back off if they put up a sustained resistance to any eviction drive. ?Can any government risk killing us simply because it wants us removed from here?? Pramanik asserted. ?It is not as simple as dictating an order. There will be a bloodbath if anyone dares to move us out of here.?

Others, like 30-year-old Malati Naskar, plan to sit up all night, blocking the road to their homes, just as they had done in March. ?When they found women and children in their way, police had no option but to call off the drive. The story will not be any different this time,? she said.