Buxwaha forest, a diamond mine

 In Madhya Pradesh’s Buxwaha forest, a diamond mine could claim two lakh trees.

The project is facing stiff resistance, including social media campaigns.

A group of youth from Hamirpur, Uttar Pradesh, protested in the Buxwaha forest by tying threads to 

trees.

The proposed Bunder diamond block in the Chhatarpur district of Madhya Pradesh has 

been in the news for the wrong reasons over the years. The diamond mine project, which 

is now with Aditya Birla Group’s Essel Mining & Industries Limited, is once again 

facing dark clouds due to protests over ecological concerns, as it could result in the 

felling of over 2,00,000 trees.

The proposed project will be spread across an area of 364 hectares in the Buxwaha 

forests that is about 225 km northeast of Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh’s capital. The block is 

estimated to have 34 million carats of rough diamonds. The National Mineral 

Development Corporation’s existing diamond mine is about 175 kilometres from Bunder.

According to the mining firm, it plans to develop a fully mechanised opencast mine and 

state of the art processing plant for recovery of diamonds with an investment of about Rs 

2,500 crore. It noted that the project, once operational, has the potential to become one of 

the largest diamond mines in the Asian region. The company targets the execution of the 

mining lease by the end of the financial year 2022.

However, the project is facing stiff opposition, including social media campaigns. 

Already, a Public Interest Litigation has been filed in the Supreme Court of India, seeking 

a stay on the project that had been secured by the Essel Mining & Industries Limited in 

2019.

“The Forest clearance report shows that the project would cost over 2,00,000 trees in the 

forest region and also use a lot of water,” said Sankalp Jain, a local youth who is 

associated with one of the groups running social media campaigns such as ‘save 

Buxwaha forest’ and ‘India stands with Buxwaha forest’ last month. “We are against the 

environmental destruction in our area, which is already a water distress area.”

This is not the first time that the project is facing resistance. In 2006, the Madhya 

Pradesh government had granted a prospecting licence to Rio Tinto Exploration India 

Private Limited, an Australian mining giant, to explore diamond mining in the Buxwaha 

region in the Chhatarpur district.

But the project faced strong opposition over ecological concerns at that time too. Later, 

the corporation decided not to go ahead with the project and exited the project after 

submitting a prospecting report to the Madhya Pradesh government in 2017.

Production of diamond (in India) was at 38,437 carats in 2018-’19 as against 39,699 

carats in the previous year in India,” said a report by the Indian Bureau of Mines. “The 

total world production of diamond was 149.8 million carats in 2018.” The state-run 

National Mineral Development Corporation has been trying to expand its operations to 

increase production.

Local sentiments

The project is facing resistance due to ecological concerns and also because the locals 

fear it would lead to loss of livelihood.

Aniket Dikhit, a resident of the Kasera village, which is one of the closest villages to the 

mining site, said: “Despite the claims to provide jobs in mining, I feel the project will eat 

out the livelihood options in the area.”

“Our villagers are dependent on minor forest produce and water for farming,” Aniket 

Dikhit told Mongabay-India. “The project involves the diversion of a nullah which is a 

lifeline for the area. It ensures groundwater level and water for wildlife. I fear this project 

will lead to groundwater depletion as well.”

The researchers who had analysed the reasons for Rio Tinto’s exit had also counted 

adverse local sentiment and movements against the project as one of the major reasons.

Environmental concerns

The Bunder mining project falls under the Bundelkhand region of India, which is a water-

stressed area. Environmentalists believe that the huge water requirement for diamond 

mining would add to the water woes of the region.

According to the pre-feasibility report of the project, the water requirement of the project 

is estimated at about 5.9 million cubic meters per day. “To meet this requirement a 

seasonal nallah will be diverted by constructing a dam,” the report said. “The water 

storage in the reservoir is estimated at around 17 million cubic metre.”

Locals to fight

Local people in the area have already expressed apprehensions against the project.

Dwivedi said they had a “long fight with the company (Rio Tinto) on the ground and 

even in the court.”

“Youth are taking part in our online movement as well,” Jain said.

Dwivedi further said due to the pandemic it has become “challenging to go on the ground 

and educate people about the environmental loss”.

Arnab Roy Chowdhury, however, is sceptical. “The Ken-Betwa River Interlinking

project already threatens 23 lakh trees and 1.9 lakh trees have already been cut down for 

Bundelkhand Expressway Highway. The destruction of flora, mega-fauna (tiger) and 

human socio-ecological habitat done so blatantly and ‘legally’, shows that it is never 

about the environment or the people, nobody in power cares about this in current India,” 

he said.