Woman farm labour stumbles upon 15 carat diamond in Kurnool dist

Time of India

04-07-2025

Tirupati: Dame luck smiled on a woman worker when she stumbled upon a 15-carat diamond while working in a farmland at Pendegallu village, under Tuggali mandal in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh, earlier this week.
Though a local trader is said to have offered her Rs 10 lakh for the diamond, the woman refused to sell it, and is expecting a better price.
Further details about the woman and the nature of the diamond are not known. As in the past, the villagers have kept the details a secret.
Almost every monsoon season heralds discovery of diamonds or precious and semi-precious stones along river Krishna and its tributaries, particularly at the confluence.
Historically, Krishna river and to some extent, the Penna, have been known to produce high quality diamonds, popularly known in history as Golconda diamonds, so called because the region between these two rivers and beyond was controlled by the Golconda rulers — Qutub Shahis.
The Kohinoor is also believed to have been mined in river Krishna at Paritala near Vijayawada.
There is heavy rush of people to several sleepy and remote villages in Kurnool district in search of diamonds every monsoon.
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The rush starts with the pre-monsoon showers and gradually diminishes as the season progresses. The lucky ones may find a few precious or semi-precious stones, while one or two searchers may end up finding diamonds.
Besides those in Kurnool, people from Anantapur too try their luck. Diamond searchers from states like Telangana, Karnataka, and Maharashtra too land up at villages like Jonnagiri, Tuggali, Maddikera, Pagidrayi, and Mahanandi in search of diamonds which 'miraculously' pop up out of the barren land, once the rain washes away the top soil.
"As people from various places suddenly land up in our villages for the diamond hunt, local farmers often find them a hindrance to carry on their farming activities smoothly. Several farmers at these villages have put up boards, warning strangers not to enter their farmlands," says Ranganna, a local farmer at Jonnagiri.
Locals say there have been instances in the past when people have found diamonds worth anywhere between Rs 20 lakh and Rs 2 crore. This year too, after a brief spell of rain, an unidentified woman and a man were lucky as they reportedly unearthed three tiny diamonds, which fetched them around Rs 20 lakh each. Diamond hunters also get lucky by unearthing diamonds worth Rs 3-4 crore in Maddikera, Tuggali, Jonnagiri, Mahanandi and other places every year.
Diamond and gold merchants also camp in the diamond-bearing villages during the monsoon season to buy diamonds from locals.