Two childhood friends in Panna, a diamond mining region in central India, said their lives may have changed after discovering a rare diamond on land they had recently rented.
Satish Khatik and Sajid Mohammed found the stone while working on a small plot they had obtained just a few weeks earlier. The city’s official appraiser later confirmed that the rock was a 15.34-carat gem-quality diamond.
“The estimated market price of the stone is between five and six million rupees. [$55,000–$66,000; £41,000–£49,000]and it will be auctioned soon,” Anupam Singh, the diamond appraiser, told BBC Hindi.
Diamonds found in the region were sold through quarterly government-run auctions that attracted buyers from India and abroad. “The estimated prices depended on the dollar rate and the benchmarks set by the Rapaport report,” Singh said.
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Khatik and Mohammed said the discovery brought immediate relief. “Now we can marry our sisters,” they said.
Khatik, 24, ran a butcher shop, while Mohammed, 23, sold fruit. They were both the youngest children in their families and came from low-income homes. Like many Panna residents, their families had searched for diamonds for generations.
Panna, located in Madhya Pradesh, was one of the least developed districts in India and was struggling with poverty, water scarcity and unemployment. Despite this, it held most of India’s known diamond reserves and continued to attract local miners in the hope of making a breakthrough.
Mohammed said his father and grandfather had worked the same plots for decades without success, finding only “dust and quartz chips.” His father, Nafees, said that “the gods have finally rewarded his hard work and patience.”
The two friends decided to rent the plot because increasing household expenses made it difficult to manage daily needs, let alone finance weddings, Mohammed told the BBC.
After finishing work each day, they searched the land by hand, dug holes, washed the dirt through sieves, and checked the stones once they were dry.
Ravi Patel, Panna district mining official, said the find was rare: “They had rented land on November 19. They were lucky to have found a gem-quality diamond within a few weeks,” he said.
Although the auction had not yet taken place, the two men said their plans were modest: “We are not thinking about buying land, expanding our businesses or moving to a bigger city yet. For now, we are focused on getting our sisters married,” they said.
(BBC)