31/08/2026
This district holds 90% of India's diamonds. Its own people are still waiting for basic facilities.
My team spent days inside Panna's diamond mines. Several thousand workers here have kept digging the soil for years, and many still haven't found anything.
What we found:
• Even when a worker finds the diamond on someone else's land, the contractor only pays him ₹100-150 for it
• Illegal mining happening inside a tiger reserve, with workers running into tigers while digging
• Silicosis has wiped out entire generations of men here. Locals call these "widow villages."
One family found a diamond worth ₹80 lakh, changing the lives of their entire 35-member family. But for every family like this, thousands keep digging and find nothing.
At what cost does this hope come? Tell me in the comments: what part of this story hit you the hardest?