India’s Conflict Diamonds: Buxwaha – by Anish Tore (News Click – July 20, 2021)

https://www.newsclick.in/

A new ecological social contract may emerge if the Save Buxwaha Forest movement attains its objectives.

They say diamonds are forever. So is the ecological damage diamond mines cause, say environmental activists protesting against the proposed diamond mine in Madhya Pradesh’s Buxwaha forest.

Blood or Conflict Diamonds is a term used for organised crime networks in African countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Congo, Angola etc, where the money from diamond smuggling is used to fund endless civil wars. A diamond mine in Buxwaha may generate another kind of conflict, one between man and nature.

The Buxwaha forest movement is different from earlier environmental struggles in some crucial ways:

DIGITAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

Social movements now harness the power of social media to mobilise and amplify support.

India Against Corruption movement demonstrated how social media can help mobilise people for public issues and influence government policy. But when it comes to mass support for environmental issues, there is a vacuum.

Greta Thunberg’s #FridaysForFuture movement created an online buzz but has limited reach among schoolchildren, millennials and ecophiles. Moreover, it was big on slogans but fell short on specific demands. #StopClimateChange is a simple enough slogan to attract a mass audience but so vague that it allows governments to escape accountability.

For the rest of this article: https://www.newsclick.in/India-Conflict-Diamonds-Buxwaha