Around 382 hectares of forest land is facing the axe as a diamond project is proposed in the region and a leading private industrial group is supposed to mine these glittering stones.

In 2019, Essel Mining & Industries Limited (EMIL), an Aditya Birla Group Company, won the Bunder diamond mine project in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh. It is estimated that the Bunder diamond block has about 34 million carats of rough diamonds.

Over 200,000 trees are expected to be cut in the Buxwaha forest for the diamond project. Environmentalists fear that the mining project would result in loss of biodiversity as well as air and water pollution.

MP government, on one hand, carries on plantation schemes and on the other plans to destroy the Buxwaha forest. Over two lakh trees are getting destroyed in MP for diamonds but these trees are priceless for humans. “Destroying forest in parched Bundelkhand is disastrous.”

Environment lovers from other States and even abroad are sending messages in favour of the Buxwaha forest. These include Lynda J. Ezegbulem from Nigeria, Anshita Vanjari from London, film actor Ashutosh Rana from Mumbai and several others who have sent messages.

Some other groups too have announced to enact a similar protest in future.

What is the Buxwaha project?

The State government had surveyed the area by an Australian company and traced diamonds in the area. The company had later withdrawn from the project and the State government auctioned the mines again two years ago. A leading industrial group has bagged the offer for mining and has identified 62-hectare land for mining while 362 hectares will be reserved for dumping mined garbage, processing and others. The area will be leased out to the private player for 50 years. Officially 2.15 lakh trees will be cut down in the project while the actual number is much more, claim volunteers