MINE GAMES AT PANNA
On January 1, diamond mining operations in Madhya Pradesh’s Panna district, the biggest centre for diamond mining in India, came to a halt after its wildlife clearance ended on December 31, 2020.
Panna is also home to a critical tiger reserve and, according to U.K. Sharma, field director of the Panna Tiger Reserve, the park management wrote to the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) of the government of India about shutting down operations as soon as the wildlife clearance expired. Predictably, the closure of mining operations has led to conservationists and government authorities butting heads.
On January 3, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan announced that the diamond mine in Majhgawan in Panna will not be closed down considering the important role it plays in the lives of the people who live in the areas located nearby. “The Majhgawan mines contribute over Rs 5 crore to the local economy,” says Shyamendra Singh, a former member of the state wildlife board. That estimate includes what mine employees spend as also the CSR initiatives of the NMDC. “The locals support the mine and want it to continue functioning,” Singh asserts.
The NMDC operates the mine in Majhgawan village, India’s only mechanised diamond mine. The local government also leases around 700 plots, each measuring 8x8 metres, to prospective private miners in the rest of the district. These small mining units employ around 6,000 to 7,000 people. For now, the state government has put on hold any fresh leases for the smaller mines.
According to the Indian Bureau of Mines, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh are the
only states with diamond deposits in the country, with Madhya Pradesh accounting for more than 90 per cent of these deposits. The mining capacity of the Majhgawan mine, according to the NMDC website, is 84,000 carats a year. It claims that a total of 10,05,064 carat diamonds have been recovered so far from the area and that the mine has an incidence of 10 carats per 100 tonnes of tuff material. “The diamond mines have given the people of Panna recognition across the world, [an honour] which they would like to retain,” adds Singh.
However, a senior forest department official, who requested anonymity, tells a different story. “The production of the mine is low and besides starting a bus service running from Hinauta to Panna town, the NMDC does not do much by way of CSR,” he reveals. “Some areas should be left inviolate for wildlife, especially considering the fragile ecology of the region and history of threat to the tiger.” The Panna Tiger Reserve is the only viable tiger habitat in the Bundelkhand region, spanning both Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. The mining activities, conservationists have argued, harm the forest areas and hinder free movement of wildlife. The Panna reserve saw a revival after being declared bereft of tigers in December 2008. A tiger reintroduction programme was launched in March 2009 and currently the tiger count at Panna is around 50.
A senior NMDC official admitted, on condition of anonymity, that the viability of the mine had been impacted by the rules and regulations of the national park. “There are 8.47 lakh carat diamonds worth Rs 1,000 crore in the reserves. There is also a security issue. What happens to the diamonds if we have to close down the mine indefinitely? The diamonds will have to be secured,” he says. “We are suffering financially because of the park. We operate two shifts a day, but can’t operate a third as we can’t switch on lights at night.”
On average, the production from the Majhgawan mine is around 40,000 carats a year. “Our target is around 70,000 carats, but since we operate only two shifts, our production remains lower,” says Samar Bahadur Singh, general secretary of the INTUC (Indian National Trade Union Congress) unit of the Majhgawan mine. In 2019, the diamonds auctioned fetched around Rs 60 crore after payment of 11.5 per cent royalty to the state government and GST. In 2020, the action was called off on account of Covid.
For around 3,000 years, India was the only producer of diamonds in the world until deposits were found in Brazil and South Africa. The Majhgawan mine, the only source of diamonds in Asia, is spread over 275 hectares of land of the Gangau sanctuary, which is part of the Panna Tiger Reserve. Its lease was last renewed in 2005 for 15 years on the condition that it would phase out operations by 2020. Madhya Pradesh mining minister Brajendra Pratap Singh, a native of Panna, has supported the extension of the lease and the state board for wildlife, which earlier supported a phased closing of the mine, approved a proposal for wildlife clearance for the mine till 2035 on January 16. NMDC officials claim that the empowered committee of the Supreme Court and the state wildlife board in 2005 had not mentioned a specific date by when the mining operations should cease. Interestingly, Chief Minister Chouhan is also the chairperson of the state wildlife board.
The proposal is now pending clearance by the National Board for Wildlife. Insiders suggest that the NMDC wants to expand the mine pit by 10 hectares, of which 1.8 hectares falls within the Gangau sanctuary. Sources at Majhgawan, however, deny that any extra area is being sought and say the broken area they have asked to be cleared for mining falls within their leased area.
It seems that, for now, the two jewels of Panna, the diamonds and the tigers, will have to learn to coexist.
THE MINING ACTIVITIES, CONSERVATIONISTS SAY, HARM THE FOREST AREAS AND HINDER FREE MOVEMENT OF WILDLIFE