Sixth time lucky in two years. A farmer in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh has mined a high quality diamond weighing 6.47 carat in a land taken on lease from the government.
The farmer, Prakash Majumdar, found this diamond from a mine in Jaruapur village in the district on Friday, officials said.
Officials said that the raw diamond would be auctioned and the proceeds would be given to the farmer after deduction of government royalty and taxes.
As per the private estimates, the 6.47 carat diamond is likely to fetch around ₹ 30 lakh in the auction.
Majumdar said that he will share the amount received from the auction with his four partners engaged in quarrying the mine.
He said that he had found a 7.44 carat diamond last year. Besides, he had also mined four other precious stones weighing 2 to 2.5 carat in the past two years.
Panna district is estimated to have diamond reserves of 12 lakh carats. The state government gives small patches of land on lease in Panna diamond reserve area to local farmers and labourers to mine diamonds and deposit them with the district mining officer.