Look who’s mining sapphires at Paddar!

Abdul Ahad Bhat, managing director of the Jammu and Kashmir Minerals Limited (JKML), says the finding of the team, which visited Paddar after a gap of 10 years, have left them shocked. “It seems everyone, except the Government of Jammu and Kashmir, have been benefiting from selling the priceless sapphires,” he said. “The loss is phenomenal. It can never be quantified.”

The JKML team, accompanied by expertsfrom the Department of Geology and Mining, reached Paddar on July 13 and found that the smugglers had broken all the gates, locks and seals of the mines and extensively damaged the four tunnels from where mining operations had been carried out. Remnants of explosives, gelatine sticks and detonators were found scattered among the debris outside the tunnels — evidence of the large-scale, illegal mining.

The Government woke up, though perhaps a bit too late. On September 18, Chief Secretary Ashok Jaitley called a high-level meeting in which various measures for improving security for the Paddar Mines as well as steps to initiate sapphire exploration were discussed.

The minutes of the meeting say: “A well-knit network of smugglers appears to be at work (and involved) in smuggling of sapphire gem stones. These smugglers, in the absence of any restrictions and movement control, have conveniently found their free access to the mine-area…”

The minutes reveal that the Chief Secretary suspected there may be“some involvement from inside” either in the JKML or the Directorate of Geology and Mining as a result of which the legal cases never got resolved. The Government has decided to keep a close eye on such “vested interests” and try and book the offenders.

Officials at the meeting also highlighted the reasons because of which the “blatant” illegal mining became possible. The reasons they cited were: Elimination of the “rehadri (permit) system” at Paddar and the shifting of a police post from Machel to Atholi, the last motorable point near Paddar. It was also pointed out that the setting up of a camp by the Sheep Husbandry Department near the mines had accentuated the problem of access control and attracted the “vested interests” into the sapphire-rich area.

Officials say the ground reality at Paddar has confirmed what they had earlier thought was rumours. JKML’s Deputy General Manager and Geologist A M Butt says that they got further proof of how deep-rooted the nexus of smugglers was when theydiscovered one of the local “mates” hired by them for taking the team to Paddar had himself been involved in the racket.

Butt describes the damage caused to the tunnels by the crude detonations and excavations as “extensive.” “While the JKML has found it difficult to run commercially viable mining operations at Paddar, these unscrupulous elements have succeeded in doing so,” he said.

However, JKML officials say that despite the illegal mining, “sizeable” sapphire deposits existed in the 2-sq km area which had earlier been mined as well as possible fresh deposits at the adjoining Chashoti, Haloti and Dangel areas. According to Butt, the Paddar area comprise about six ridges, which are covered with snow three-fourth of the year. His estimate was that in one ridge alone (where he had conducted geological studies) there would be 4,000 kg of sapphire corundum.