Madhya Pradesh: Luck shines on farmer for sixth time, mines 6.47 carat diamond in Panna

A farmer from the district of Panna in Madhya Pradesh has mined a diamond of supreme quality weighing 6.47 carat. He has mined high-quality diamonds in the land taken on lease from the government for the sixth time in two years. The farmer named Prakash Majumdar extracted the diamond from a mine in the village of Jaruapur within the Panna district on Friday, informed the in-charge diamond officer, Nutan Jain.

The 6.47-carat diamond will be up for grabs for the highest bidders in the upcoming auctions. However, the price limit will be fixed by the government and the auctions will be held according to the guidelines. The farmer, Majumdar, said while talking to the media that he will be sharing the amount he receives from the auction with his four other partners who help him with the process of mining and extracting diamonds.

He was quoted saying, “We are five partners. We got the diamond weighing 6.47 carat, which we deposited at the Government Diamond Office."

According to the Government officials, the amount collected from the auction of the raw diamond will be handed over to the farmer after deducting the government taxes and royalty. According to the estimates made by experts, the raw diamond weighing 6.47 carat has the potential to fetch more than Rs 30 lakh at the auction.

The sixth time the charm!

Earlier in 2020, the farmer had mined another high-quality raw diamond weighing 7.44 carat. Along with this, the farmer along with his partners had mined four other precious stones in the past two years and that was weighing in the range of 2 to 2.5 carat. Panna district is extremely rich in natural resources, especially precious stones. The district is said to have natural reserves of more than 12 lakh carats of just diamonds alone. The state government allocates small patches of land in Panna to local farmers and labourers on lease. They are tasked with mining diamonds and they must deposit the same with the district mining officer. Panna has an 80 km belt of reserves rich in diamonds and the majority of locals rely on the diamond industry of the district. 

(With PTI inputs)