Panna: Diamonds are forever

Recently, Goddess lakshmi smiled on the laborers,as these people extracted four major Diamonds in different place and time individually in Panna diamond mines region in such dreadful conditions created after the onset of Covid-19 pandemic. Diamonds weighed 7.22, 7.44, 14.98, 6.92-carat respectively and are projected to be auctioned for more than 30 lakhs and the biggest atleast 60 lakh. People who became a millionaire overnight are overjoyed by it. 

Sandeep Yadav(24 year old), a police service aspirant, who had taken the mine on lease from the government after recruitment in the police force was deferred due to the Covid-19 outbreak, unearthed a 6.92-carat diamond, valued at Rs 30 lakh in the lockdown period.Yadav is the fourth person to hit the jackpot in last 30 days.

 Before that Dilip Mistry extracted the 7.44 carat stone from a mine in Jaruapur. Mistry told he is a part of a group of four people who have been working hard to extract diamonds in their private land for the past six months. He said that the God has been very graceful on him as they got a diamond of this good quality for the first time."

Lakhan Yadav, who is a small farmer with a two-acre, landmined a 14.98 carat one in Krishna Kalyanpur area. Balbir singh yadav extracted a 7.22 carat diamond and have  deposited it to the authorities. According to Mines inspector Anupam Singh all extracted diamonds will be  put for sale after deduction pf 12.5 per cent royalty. 

Four types of Dimonds are found in Panna

Panna, a district in the empoverished Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh which was also the Capital City of Maharaja Chhatrasaal of Bundelkhand riyaasat. The district has gained it's own share of fair popularity among tourists and miners as it is one of the few known sites for diamond extraction in India. A large group of Diamond deposits extends North-East on a branch of the Vindhya range for 240 kilometres (150 mi) or so, and is known as the Panna group.

Four classifications were given to the Panna diamonds: 

1.Motichul - clear and brilliant
2. Manik - with a faint orange tint
3. Panna - verging in tint towards green
4. Bunsput - sepia coloured.

Diamond mines in Panna are managed under the Diamond Mining Project of National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC Ltd) of Government of India.The diamonds are auctioned by the administration every three months or in the month of january and the proceeds are handed over to the miner after deducting the royalty of 12.5%.The diamonds unearthed are all collected by the district magistrate of Panna.  Auctions are open to the public and require a Rs. 5000 deposit. Upwards of 100 diamonds of different carat and shade are offered for auction.Approximately 275 diamond were autioned last time.

Mining in Panna has bad consequences too. Human settlement in Panna dates back 13th or 17th century where it was under Gond kingdom.After years of shallow mining of diamonds in Panna, the precious stones are hard to find in the mines situated outside the jungle.Most of such shallow mines are now located on the private lands and farm fields which encourage people to dig for gem illegally,and as the Illegal mining of diamond made it's way inside the protected Forest near Panna national park, the forest department was forced to take action and conducted consecutive raids to curb the shallow mining of diamonds taking place very close to the buffer zone of the park. 

“Villagers have now started carrying the mining operations right inside the forest. And this, of course, is not possible without connivance of our staff”, a senior forest official said . A large number of diamond mines are operated inside the protected area of the forest in Pahadikheda region where Baghin river flows. There are more illegal diamond shallow mines than the number of legal mines leased out by the administration, forest department sources claimed. Almost on regular basis, villagers mine diamonds from the shallow mines in Panna.

Authorities can be partially blamed for the illegal mining too as the only condition for a diamond to be deposited in auctionary is of Rs 5000  with details of the submitter. Diamond from anyone is submitted whether it does or doesn't comes from a officially leased land. Authorities should take appropriate measures to stop such unauthorized mining which is becoming a major problem  for the wildlife residing in the national park.