Last week, Aarey forest lost one of its champions. Rebel, rapper and activist Dharmesh Parmar, 24,  popularly known to music fans as MC TodFod, died of a heart attack. One of the few rappers to work in multiple languages, including Gujarati, his verses spoke of caste discrimination, communal violence and corporate greed. “Hume na pasand ye khota vikas, na hai tum jaise choron pe vishwas. Metro banane ukhado tum zhaad, jab zhaad na bachenge kaise loge saans,” is how he began his verse in The Warli Revolt, a powerful bilingual track by Mumbai-based multilingual hip-hop band, Swadesi, in collaboration with Adivasi activist from Aarey Milk Colony Prakash Bhoir and The Aarey Collective. It went on to become a sort of anthem during the widespread protests by citizens and environmentalists that broke out against the destruction of the Aarey forest in Goregaon to make way for the Mumbai Metro car shed. “The words of the song kept playing in my head when I got the news [of his death]. He spoke of breathing free; he’s gone too far away from us,” says Bhoir, 54, a resident of Ketlipada in Aarey, who has dedicated himself to drawing attention to the importance of preserving the forest and his community habitat. Calling Parmar an old soul in a young man’s body, Bhoir says he was mature and intense. “His thoughts deep dived into social evils, and were translated into music. I found that very inspiring.”

Rapper Tony Sebastian, aka Stony Psyko from Dopeadelicz, calls Parmar a genius. He was younger than most of his contemporaries, but wise beyond his years. “He did a lot of tracks themed on society. Even during the cyphers [freestyle rap session], he’d perform verses that spoke about his community, the issues that our country was facing. It seemed to affect him personally. In fact in his first track, Su che karvanu [What do we do?], he was referring to what the common man could do to participate in the destiny of this country,” remembers Sebastian, 30.