Panna diamonds

Panna, in north-eastern Madhya Pradesh, is India's only diamond-producing district. The diamond mines run in a belt about 80 km across around Panna town, and geologists claim that Panna and a few pockets of neighbouring Chhatarpur hold the best-quality diamonds in Asia, in three kinds: gem stones, the most valuable, plus yellow and dark brown industrial grades. In older days the richest workings were at the village of Sukariuh.

The serious mining happens at Majhgawan, about 15 km from Panna, where the state-owned National Mineral Development Corporation runs India's only organised, mechanised diamond mine. Its pit, spread over 13 to 14 hectares and 116 metres deep, has given up more than a million carats, and NMDC has long pressed the forest department to let it extend the pit by ten hectares, which the forest department has resisted, citing the tigers of Panna National Park.

The romance is in the small plots. Anyone can try their luck. With a form, photographs, an Aadhaar card and a 200-rupee fee, the District Diamond Office allots an 8-by-8-metre patch for a year, and the leaseholder digs it, sieves the gravel, washes it and sorts it by hand, or hires labour to do it. Every stone found must go to the Diamond Office, whose valuer fixes a price; auctions are held four times a year, and after a government deduction for royalty and tax the rest goes to the finder. Hundreds still apply each year, although most of the land on offer has been dug over for decades. Two young friends, Satish Khatik and Sajid Mohammad, found a 15.34-carat gem-quality stone barely 20 days into their lease, valued at more than 50 lakh rupees. Sajid's grandfather had dug the same soil for nearly fifty years without finding anything bigger than a carat.

There is a shadow side. When the national park was created in 1993, more than 50 diamond sites passed to the forest department, leaving the state with just three patches, at Krishna Kalyanpur, Raksheha and Sakariya Chopra, and illegal digging inside the tiger reserve has become a running fight with forest guards. Panna's stones now carry a Geographical Indication tag and are marketed under the name "Panna Diamond."