Several students from tribal areas of Thane and Palghar districts marched with their school bags and goats to Azad Maidan in neighbouring Mumbai on Wednesday to protest the Maharashtra education department's decision to shut around 3,000 schools across the state, where only a handful of students are enrolled.

The protest, spearheaded by a social organisation, was held on a day when schools for Classes 1 to 7 reopened in Thane, Palghar, Mumbai and some other places after more than 20 months in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, with students being welcomed back on campuses with balloons, flowers and rangolis.