Hunters for precious stones descend in Pathikonda area

Kurnool: Ahead of a month or two for the rainy season to start, the villagers of Pathikonda, Thuggali, Peravali and Maddikera are mushrooming at the farm lands in search of diamonds or precious stones.  

The rainy season may or may not lead to a good crop yield for the farmers of these areas. But many people become prosperous by involving in search for precious stones in farm lands of red soil. These places attract people  from different places immediately after the commencement of rains.  

While farmers prepare the lands during rainy season for sowing various crops, other people are busy searching for diamonds and precious stones in the red soil.

Precious stones appear during the rainy season between July and September and the people in this area have a tradition of testing their fortunes during this time of the year. The lands in Pathikonda constituency in Kurnool district see more hunters than farmers and farm labourers during this period.

People in large numbers, from various parts of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka states flew to Kurnool for searching the valuable stones. They form teams and hunt for diamonds in the farmlands just after the rains begin. As usual, this year too, the hunters have descended before the onset of rainy season to test their fortunes. Search for diamonds continues even at night times.

Once, Rayalaseema under the Vijayanagara Empire was an open market for diamonds. The precious stones were traded on the roadside in heaps like cereals and peanuts centuries ago.

The hunters believe that diamonds are still lying beneath the earth and they become visible during the rainy season. The precious stones surface from the fields after the rain water washes away the upper layers of the earth. In addition to the hunters, the diamond merchants from Mumbai too tent their camp at Peravalli during this season.