Luck shines on Madhya Pradesh farmer for sixth time as he mines 6.47-carat diamond in Panna

For the sixth time in two years, a farmer in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh has mined a high quality diamond - this time 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, said Nutan Jain, in-charge diamond officer. The 6.47 carat diamond will be put up for sale in the upcoming auction and the price will be fixed as per the government guidelines, she said.

Majumdar said that he will share the amount received from the auction with his four partners engaged in quarrying the mine.

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"We are five partners. We got the diamond weighing 6.47 carat, which we deposited at the Government Diamond Office," he told reporters on Friday.

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.

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 Rs 30 lakh in the auction.

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.