A campaign to save Madhya Pradesh’s Buxwaha forest has been gaining momentum. The protest is for saving the Buxwaha forest because the Aditya Birla Group’s Essel Mining and Industries Limited (EMIL) has taken up a diamond mining project that would be eradicated and would also increase the air and water pollution.
It is also expected that the project would change the whole biodiversity of the nearby land. The proposed project would deforest an area of 384 hectares in Buxwaha Protected Forest, which is located near village Sagoria. The project would cover 80 Kilometres for Chhatarpur and 260 Kilometres from the capital city Bhopal.
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This area includes the block of 7000 villages and would disturb the lives of over 17 tribes, which directly depends on the forest and its resources for survival. These forest products can include mahua, tendu leaves, chironji and Amla.
When the project would be executed, it would clear more than two lakh trees and require an estimate of 5.9 million cubic metres per day of water. This demand would be fulfilled by making a dam on a seasonal canal that can store approximately 17 million cubic metre of water.
The estimated resources to be extracted from the forest area are – around 53.70 million tonnes of kimberlite ore which would contain 34 million carats of rough diamonds.
Reportedly, EMIL has been planning to establish a fully mechanized opencast mile and processing plant for diamond, the investment in the plant is nearly INR 2500 crore. For now, EMIL is in the process of obtaining various regulatory clearances such as approval of Mine Plan, Environment and Forest clearances, required for the execution of mining lease.
As the natural resources are highly concerned, people have called for a nationwide virtual awareness campaign under the hashtag “#savebuxwahaforest”.
On Environment Day (June 5), some people even started a campaign, same as the Chipko movement, and called out people from different communities to participate in the awareness campaign.
Some have also submitted a Public Interest Ligation (PIL) to the Supreme Court to put a stay on the EMIL’s diamond mining project.
As the district administration has denied permission to save the Buxwaha forest campaign, many environmentalists would begin ‘Harit Satyagrah’ from Sunday. The group of environmentalists would come together to save the Buxwaha forest. The convener of the protest has said that the protest would be done in a peaceful manner and the Covid protocols would also be followed.