-By Akash Pandey :
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed” – Mahatma Gandhi
When Greed overpowers need, disasters make their way towards mankind. India has been blessed with an optimum amount of forest cover, and its forest laws have ensured that the forest cover does not dwindle down below dangerous levels. But as greed of corporates grow, so does the degradation of environment. One such project hovering over the lives of tribals and wildlife in Bakshwaha region of Chattarpur district in the State of Madhya Pradesh, where speculations for excavation of 971 hectare of land is being undergone, is “Bunder Diamond Block Excavation”.
The area of excavation is so huge that it could cover approximately 2400 football fields and can adversely impact the adjoining Panna tiger reserve and Nauradehi wildlife sanctuary. It was already stated by a committee report in 2015 that the region is used as Migratory corridor by the tigers in Panna tiger reserve, therefore flagging off this project would endanger their lives. The region accounts for trees such as teak, ken, behda, banyan, jamun, tendu, arjuna and plants with medicinal benefits, which the project would be wiping out. The project has other adverse resultants in the form of destroying the livelihood of tribals population residing in the forests from past hundred years.
The Project promises afforestation cover but it is never implemented on ground. According to a Villager also impacted by the Project, “The trees planted to compensate for the lakhs of trees cut down for Bundelkhand Expressway Highway are hardly alive. The Ken-Betwa Interlinking Project risks the lives of 21 lakh trees, officially. But the actual number is many times higher,” he said. “In this mining project also, the assessment of 2 lakh trees is much lower than the actual count of flora. And what about the animals living in these forests?”
Madhya Pradesh has a Forest cover of 30% and the project has the potential of disrupting the landscape in a very ugly manner. As accounted for Environmental Clearance, it was reported that the project would lead to cutting down of 2 Lack trees, other than the impacts stated above, the real numbers of trees are way higher than reported. As Majority of forests in the project comes under protected forest, therefore In order to excavate the entire 900 hectares, special permissions have to be taken from Central Government, which would result in delays, but state government is in no mood to delay the project therefore it has already flagged off the excavation.
According to Forest and Environment laws, a written consent of the village heads has to be obtained prior to the excavation process who would be impacted by such project. And several Villages have even denied its consent for occupying such land upon knowing the consequences, but still the state government has Issued Letter of Intent to the Essel Mining & Industries Limited (EMIL), Aditya Birla Group Company for initiating the project for 382.131-hectare of land in the first phase.
The “Political will” of the state towards the concept of Sustainable development tends to fade, with corporate gains rising. We find that even after stringent forest protection laws are in place, loopholes in the mechanism are being used by the state itself to uphold its actions are righteous. Ironically, a month ago, a person was prosecuted for cutting down timber in Madhya Pradesh and the punishment could have been upto 2 years of prison.
The Consequences of the project are self-introductory towards the Environmental Degradation of Bakshwaha region and the same incentivizes to call this project as “Disaster”. Supreme Court has been approached by the Environmental Activist Neha Singh with the prayer of staying the project as soon as possible. With the Judicial activism of Supreme Court in the cases of T.N Godhavarman and Rural litigation and entitlement Kendra, the hopes are high that the Apex Court would certainly allow the prayers in first place.