Jabalpur (Madhya Pradesh): Dr PG Najpande, a resident of Jabalpur, has filed a petition in National Green Tribunal (NGT) Bhopal demanding that permission granted for the diamond mine project in Buxwaha be cancelled.
He said that the diamond mine project, which would span 364 hectares of forest area, would result in lakhs of trees being cut and this could affect the biodiversity in the region.
According to the petitioner, permission given to a private company for diamond mining in the Buxwaha forest of Chhatarpur district by the government is wrong in many respects.
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First of all, the Supreme Court and NGT's orders on "Sustainable Development" have been ignored. Also, a prior order of the NGT clearly specifies that compensatory afforestation, twice the forest area that is diverted, is mandated. However, all this has been ignored by the Collector of Chhatarpur, the petitioner alleged.
Most importantly, the diamond mine project will affect 8,000 forest dwellers and the government has not made any prerequisite arrangements for them. All these arguments have been put forward by the petitioner in his public interest litigation, which would be heard in the coming week.
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Environmentalists across the Bundelkhand region are outraged by the news that lakhs of trees and plants would be felled in the forest for the diamond mining project in Buxwaha. Several residents from Damoh and Buxwaha region have also held protests against the diamond mining project by clinging to trees in a bid to save the forest. In Shilapari village near Madiyado, villagers have initiated protests similar to the Chipko movement.
