Buxwaha Jungles, India | Deforestation | Climate Change | Diamonds | Is Aditya Birla Group's desire for more profit actual culprit ?

Welcome to my blog, in this blog I will present my analysis and findings to clarify in very simple words an extremely important topic running across the length & breadth of India. 

Fig 1: Map of Buxwaha Jungle

Buxwaha Jungle is situated in Indian state of Madhya Pradesh roughly 650 k.ms south of Indian Capital New Delhi in Chattarpur District with a population of 10,216 as per 2011 census.

Recently the Government (Govt.) granted permission to cut down 2,15,875 Trees for Diamond Mining by Aditya Birla group company Essel Mining, this will not only result in a very large scale deforestation but will also have negative impact on Tiger conservation, loss of plants & animals species and a deep risk to local Tribal people who have been living in this area for 100s of years. The worst of all: this area is drought prone so deforestation will further increase the problem of water shortage. Additionally an important point to note: Diamond Mining is a water intensive project.

On the other hand the Government already assured that it will re-plant a lot more trees than deforested, also the Govt. promises that this project will increase the economic development of the area and will create many jobs for the people and will help the area suffering from unemployment. 

The govt has also emphasized: this project will help in developing the infrastructure in this area that is mostly remote and wild.

1. History

Lets us try to decode this Buxwaha Forest controversy. It all started in the year January 2004 when Rio Tinto (an Anglo Australian company) discovers that beneath this area there is a very large deposit of Diamonds, apparently the diamond deposit was code named as Bunder(Monkey in Hindi) due to the fact that this region has lot of monkeys (Biodiversity loss begins).

2. Further Development 

Fig 3

In October 2010 after 6 years struggle the company Rio Tinto finally signs a State Support Agreement to Bunder Diamond Project with the State Govt. of Madhya Pradesh, the Govt. and Rio Tinto both agrees to pay a 10% royalty to State Govt.on Diamond Mining that means 10% profit will be shared with Govt and 90% profit will go to Rio Tinto. A Rio Tinto research estimated that 27.4 million Carat Diamond are present in this area which is 700% more than 170 k.m away Panna District Diamond mines.   As per the research a total area of 971 hectares was estimated to have diamond deposit and Rio Tinto had an approval (license) to mine 954 hectares resulting in cut down of approx 5,00,000 Trees.

3. Environmental Impact 

This was a great news for Rio Tinto; however this news does not appeared pleasing to many environmentalists as the place was close to Panna Tiger Reserve which would have been negatively affected by diamond mine, also uncountable monkeys would have been negatively impacted and most importantly the lifeline of Panna Tiger Reserve- Ken River which is also home to alligators would also suffer a heavy loss due to this Diamond Mines. In fact another wildlife reserve sanctuary Ken Garihal Sanctuary is also present in close proximity of 150 k.ms. Lastly Buxwaha Jungles itself have its own a nature reserve that would be at a great loss. 

Fig 4

These natural reserves are back bone of good climate and infact they are our biggest support to fight pollution, if this project would have started in 2010 we would have had already suffered so much of environmental loss due to profits of Business Houses, Corporate and Govt Revenue Boards. Thankfully this did not happened due to commendable efforts of environmental activists lead by  Shehla Masood (Fig 4). 

3.Ugly face of BJP's & INC's Politics:

Fig 5

In 2011, the environmental activist- Shehla Masood wrote a letter to Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram and also filed a written complaint to Parliament's select committee. Apart from this due to RTI efforts of Shehla Masood the High Court of Madhya Pradesh also asked immediate response from the State(BJP) and Central(Congress) Govts on why there was a huge negligence of regulations in Buxwaha Jungle Diamond Mining Project, efforts of environmental activist started bringing some results however on 16 August 2011, Shehla Masood was murdered in broad daylight when she was going to attend an anti-corruption rally by Anna Hazare. Many suspicion evolved that Rio Tinto, Local BJP Leaders and Diamond Mafia were involved in this murder (Fig 5). 

Fig 6

On getting allegations of  Shehla Masood murder; the 2011 BJP's MP Govt's state Home Minister- Uma Shankar clarified that the murder of Shehla Masood is very unfortunate but there was no body in the state govt who wanted to kill the environmental activist, also the Rio Tinto spokesperson clarified that Rio Tinto condemn the act of violence and loss of life, further Rio Tinto again clarified that they operate with very high standard of ethics and does not participate in such acts of violence for Business advantages. 

Later MP Police declares that Shehla Masood died due to a real estate dispute however MP Police's low credibility and pressure from world forces Central (Congress) Govt. to transfer this case to reputed Central Bureau of Investigation (C.B.I), after investigation CBI releases its finding and declares that Shehla Masood died due to a twisted love triangle.

The story of Shehla Masood's murder is very complicated and deep, if you are interested to read it more please refer The Guardian Article.

4. Halt of Diamond Mining and Good Bye of Rio Tinto:

After the murder of Shehla Masood the environmental protest continues specifically lead by Valmik Thappar  and NGO Pahal.  

Fig 7

Finally in the year March 2016, a Forest Advisory Committee declares that the Diamond Mining Project falls in inviolate category as the proposed area is a rich forest area and falls under Panna Tiger Reserve; the place can not be mined as per the Wildlife Protection Act of 1972. Strengthening the findings the National Tiger Conservation Authority also releases same report and advises not to carry out Diamond Mining in the proposed area. Refer Fig 7 to review the Forest Authorities declaration  

After the release of both 2016 reports the Centre's BJP Govt. finally rejects the proposal for Diamond Mining. The decision leaves Rio Tinto frustrated and finally they makes a last request to mine in a small area of only 76.43 Hectares from an earlier approved area of 954 Hectares. However the Forest Committee again rejects the proposal stating, "mining on 76.43 Hectares will also leave a negative impact on remaining high quality forest."

Fig 8

Finally in August 2016, Rio Tinto decides to close this project and suffer an estimated loss of INR. 2,200 crores. The company decides to hand over their all developments to State Government, its noteworthy to illustrate that MP's CM Shivraj made his best efforts to get Statutory Compliance for Rio Tinto's revised proposal of 76 Hectares (Fig 8), however even in his ability of State CM he failed. 

Eventually on 7th Feb 2017 Rio Tinto moves out of Buxwaha and handed over everything to MP State Govt.   
Finally Forests, Tigers, Monkeys, Alligators and Tribals all get saved, a Happy Ending till next election. 

 5. Ecological Demon Arrives Again:

Fig 9

In 2018, BJP's MP State Govt crashes and fresh election happens resulting victory to Congress Govt. in Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. The newly elected Chief Minister Mr. Kamal Nath thinks to revive the Buxwaha Diamond Project and subsequently the new CM decides for an auction to mine the Buxwaha Diamond Mines, 5 firms showed interest and participated in the Bid Process these 5 companies were: 

1. Aditya Birla Group's Essel Mining. 
2. Adani Group's Kolari Mines. 
3. Rungta Mines
4. Vedanta Group
5. National Mineral Development Corporation

Finally, Birla Group's Essel Mining wins the Bid and was awarded 374 Hectares of land for mining (Fig 9).

The Congress' run state govt lead by CM Kamal Nath decides that revenue model will be on profit sharing with 41.55% of profit to be claimed by State Govt and 52.45% profit to be kept by Birla Group. 

 6. Individual's Critical Thinking:

I urge the readers just to think with a broad mindset all the natural reserves like Jungles, Rivers, Mountains, Wildlife etc. who owns them?, Is govt owning them?, I feel nobody owns the natural resources of Earth. 

Nevertheless coming back to our topic: a Jungle is sold to a Private Company which uses it to make money and that money is shared by the Govt. What does the Citizens gets? Jobs? The jobs referred here are labour class mining jobs that just have few rupees of monthly wages and is extremely hazardous of one's health. Ultimately the diamonds extracted will be bought by less than 1% of people because its a luxury item not everyone can afford it. 

Fig 10

The entire case is a classic example of how Capitalism ruins natural resources, a wide natural resource is destroyed to benefit less than 1% population what is the worth in it? 

Interesting fact: Aditya Birla Group was the top donor to Congress in elections of 2014 (Fig 10) and in 2019 elections Aditya Birla Group was a Top Donor to Modi's BJP Govt. After 2019 PM Modi totally removed corporal bonds and made(rename) Electoral Bond, after creation of Electoral Bond people can not know which company donated how much to which political party, Is it right? RTI killed. 

Fig 11

If this Diamond Mine happens there will be a heavy water shortage in this region which is already drought prone, this will impact the local people in that area and can possibly result in a water war- a similar war over natural resources has happened in past across the world.  

Also as per the report the water requirement for 1 diamond plant is 16,050 cubic meters/ day i.e. approx 5.9 million cubic meters/ year. 1 cubic meter is 1000 litres of water, so in a year 5900 million litres of water will be used by just 1 Diamond Plant. 

7. The Business of Diamonds:

An English proverb says Money Begets Money ; try to understand the ultimate output of this mine-Diamonds. Who can buy diamonds only riches ornament and jewels are not the only use of diamonds of course diamond is also used in other Mechanical Tools but we have enough diamond to make Tools. 

Fig 12

Economically speaking Diamond has a Price but no intrinsic value(its created) infact the whole diamond industry is often termed as SCAM; Diamond companies across the world forcefully controls the price of Diamond, when the price of diamonds starts to fall, these companies stop the supply and ultimately the price again shoots up. 

Fig 12 clearly shows which company in what percent controls the supply of Diamonds. 

8. Conclusion and my opinion:

We have discussed enough to conclude this topic and here is my take: 

1. Economic Growth: The Govt says the Diamond Mining project will bring Jobs; has govt conducted a survey among local people if they are happy to do an extremely health hazardous mine's labour jobs; has govt asked the local tribal people how they are happily living inside and with the jungle for 100s of year with their own indigenous way of economic development which is also highly sustainable. The answer is obviously no; normal citizen will not opt for cleaning of forest for a petty wage driven job. 

Fig 13

2. Diamond Jewel: I will still value few people's opinion that having more diamond supply can help India to export Diamonds, my take: Today with advancement of science Diamonds can be created in Labs artificially, we no longer need to cut forests for mining diamonds also noteworthy to mention that Lab Grown Diamonds are as good as mined Diamonds. 

Fig 14

Many People will argue that Lab Grown Diamonds are fake and not that great in quality but actually its a bizarre argument, diamonds are chemically Carbon Structure formed under immense pressure that's all nothing more to it refer Fig 13. 

Be it a Lab Grown Diamond or Earth Mined Diamond both will have same Carbon Structure.  

Many Research have certified that Lab Grown Diamonds are as good as Natural Diamonds infact a European diamond brand Pandora has also stated that they will no longer use mined diamonds and will only use the Lab grown Diamonds. So I find no reason to use mined diamonds.

 

Fig 15

3. Advance Technology Solution: A giant conglomerate like Aditya Birla Group shall focus more on a sustainable Eco-friendly diamond business model rather than focusing on climate hazard business model of mining diamonds; as diamond is a pure carbon structure, there is a research that illustrates creating diamonds from Carbon Emission (Fig 15).

A group like Aditya Birla who is so rich and very reputed shall invest in establishing a revolutionary solution in which carbon dioxide is extracted from atmosphere and later carbon is extracted releasing oxygen back in air and using the carbon to make diamonds.

Fig 16

This Solution will help in 2 ways: No Need for Mining and Reduction in greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, the solution is already implemented and diamonds have been formed using this way(Fig 16). Each carat of Diamond removes 20 Tonnes of carbon dioxide from atmosphere. 

Let us expect Aditya Birla to create such a fantastic revolution and earn a wow from the mankind rather than playing corporate politics game and try to mine and degrade the Earth. 

I strongly request Aditya Birla group to stop the Diamond Mine Project as it can potentially result in loss of Wildlife, Forests, Tigers and Cultural Loss of Tribal People life. Urge Aditya Birla group to try this new eco friendly way of Diamond Creation.

 

न चोरहार्यं न च राजहार्यंन   भ्रातृभाज्यं न च भारकारी ।  व्यये कृते वर्धते एव नित्यं विद्याधनं सर्वधन प्रधानम् 

Neither it can be stolen not it can be divided knowledge  gets multiplied when shared

Cheers ! 

Nishant