Buxwaha forest issue

Do you know why Buxwaha is in limelight?

You should read about it because it has everything to do with your life.

Diamond Mining Project is facing a lot of protests these days by some organisations as well as by the citizens of the country.

This project had been shown green signal by Kamalnath (Indian National Congress) lead state government of Madhya Pradesh in 2018 and the Essel mining or Aditya Birla Group was given permission to mine diamonds in the area after an auction.  

According to a report, this project for digging diamonds will be pushing many a things at risk :

1.  It would include cutting more than 215000 trees in the region. 

2. Many plant and animal species will also be at risk.

3. Tiger conservation would be affected

4. More than 7000 tribal people will lose their livelihoods that they get from the forest.

Apart from this all , Bundelkhand is a drought-prone area where this water intensive diamond mining is to take place.

This project would need 590 crore litres of water / year .

For Panna Tiger Reserve , Ken River is the lifeline. Also,the Ken Gharial sanctuary is nearby. Thus in such cases, there is a high possibility of causing harm to these species.

#HISTORY OF BUXWAHA DIAMOND MINING PROJECT:

The story starts back in 2004 when an Anglo-Australian company named RIOTINTO tells the world about the diamond deposits in Buxwaha region of Madhya Pradesh and names this diamond mining project as " BUNDER PROJECT "( since this area has a lot of monkeys). It was estimated that this area would have 27.5 million carats diamonds which might be one of the biggest diamond deposits in India.

In 2010 , RIOTINTO signed a state support agreement for the " Bunder Diamond Project ". At that time , Shivraj Singh Chauhan of Bharatiya Janata Party was the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh.  It was decided that the profit from the diamonds mined will be shared 10% with the government and remaining by the company. The company was allowed to mine 954 out of 971 hectares of land for diamonds.

But as soon as the project got permission, protests started across the country and environmental activists like Shehla Masood and NGO Pahal got active and started protests against this " BUNDER PROJECT ".

In March 2016 , the Forest Advisory Committee came up with a report saying that the Buxwaha forest comes in inviolation category. Some related statements were made by the Tiger Reserve Committee also .

As a result, finally the project was put to an end.

But in March 2016 , the company put in some desperate attempts in reply so as to get the project back at some small levels ( to mine 76 hectares of land. But this proposal was also denied as a result of which RIOTINTO QUITS AT LAST.

#THE GREAT TWIST :

After elections in 2018, previous MP govt. , it revived the project and auctioned the land and this project with a policy in which 58% profit will be to the the company that wins the auction, i.e, Aditya Birla Group (Essel mining) and remaining profit to the government.

And now the protests have started again against this mining project so as to protect the forest and a lot of people and animal species that depend on it .

#ODD ANGLE TO THE SITUATION

What if I ask you that does diamond make you breathe? No you would say 

One more question for you 

What benifit does diamond have to other species of forest? 

What I believe is that diamond has nothing  direct benefit to any one.

Diamonds do not have any intrinsic value and are not needed by each and every people of the country but by some top 1% rich people to show off their luxurious lifestyle. But the jungle is needed by everyone to breathe on this earth happily.

Then how could a government decide to give the property of citizens to a Billionaire to make his profit and to some rich people to show off their luxurious lifestyle??

Moreover diamonds can also be made in labs ( artificial diamonds ) so why dig and destroy the jungles ??

We appeal to the government and Aditya Birla Group to stop this project and let the life of the jungle and people depending on it be peaceful. Prevent the damage to the environment that would occur if mining occurs.

We request you all to share this post and be a part of this initiative to stop MINING PROJECT.

Also read what earth has to say to humans on this encroachment on forest ?

https://teamoddangle.blogspot.com/2021/06/a-letter-to-homo-sapiens-from-earth.html

Team Odd Angle :

Muskan jain

Deeksha 

Nandini rawat

Khushi soni

Anushka yadav

Ansh pandey

Aiman zaki

Ravi jonwar 

Mayur Srivastava

Jatin Mathur

Idea and execution by:  Ansh pandey.

Edited by: jatin Mathur and Mayur Shrivastava

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