a large fenced compound houses between 300 and 1000 pandit meditators at the edge of vedic city as part of a program to foster world peace through meditation that began in 2007. these indian pandits came to the u.s. on a religious visa program, and are paid $200 a month, $150 of which is sent back to their families in india. in the past, large numbers of the pandits have "disappeared", presumably to find work in the u.s. on march 11, 2014, the jefferson county sheriff was called to the pandit compound to investigate a disturbance, in which a group of pandits were protesting the deportation of a popular pandit. the sheriff's car was damaged in the melee after being mobbed by 60-70 pandits; order was restored after more jefferson county sheriff's deputies, fairfield police and the iowa state patrol responded. this incident led to press investigations of conditions at the pandit compound, particularly the enforced seclusion and segregation of the pandits from the community.