Diamond Mining in Panna

Subject: Geography

Section: Places in news

Concept:

NMDC, the country’s largest iron ore miner, reportedly hopes to rope in State Forest Research Institute (SFRI) at Jabalpur, to study tiger movement and other environmental factors at Panna (in Madhya Pradesh), where it plans to resume diamond mining.
NMDC has written to the State Forest Research Institute (SFRI), Jabalpur for providing their consent and budgetary offer for conducting such studies in consultation with Panna Tiger Reserve and PCCF (WL) Bhopal.

Panna Diamond Mines

For 3,000 years, India was the only source of diamonds globally until diamond deposits were located in Brazil and South Africa.
Panna’s mines have been supplying precious diamonds for thousands of years.
In India, the state-controlled National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is the only organised producer of diamonds from its Majhgawan mine in the Panna region.
Majhgawan mine is the only Diamond mine in Asia.
NDMC Panna is the only diamond mine in the country with more than 74 hectares of mechanised mining.
However, small mines of Panna are open cast mines that use traditional techniques and hand tools. Most of them are operated illegally.

Tiger reserve v/s mining

The Panna Tiger Reserve (PTR) is one of the most critical habitats of tigers in India.
In 2009, there were no tigers left in the PTR but after a series of measures now, the tiger reserve has around 50 tigers in it.
For protecting the tiger habitat, authorities are curbing mining activities in the forest by imposing fines.
The NMDC’s diamond mine is also under pressure to phase out its operation. The operation was suspended as the mine’s environmental clearance came to an end on December 31, 2020, but later resumed after state government intervention.

About Panna Tiger Reserve:

The Panna tiger reserve is situated in the Vindhya Mountain range in the northern part of Madhya Pradesh.
Ken river (a tributary of the Yamuna River) flows through the reserve.
The region is also famous for Panna diamond mining.
Ken-Betwa River interlinking project will be located within the tiger reserve.
As of 2021, the reserve has a population of around 50 tigers, and efforts are being made to increase this number.