Joda: The prevailing slump in mining sector has forced people of the Jhara community in Keonjhar district to get back to their traditional occupation of gold hunting, a report said.
The rivers, creeks and wild streams of the district, which has huge reserves of iron ore, manganese, bauxite, limestone and quartz, have turned into hunting grounds for Jhara people, who have engaged themselves in garnering nuggets of the yellow metal in deep forests.
Gold scouting in rivers, streams and nullahs was their traditional occupation. Over the years, as mining work proliferated everywhere, they got jobs in the mining sector.
However, with most of the mines lying closed for last couple of years, people belonging to Jhara community have been left jobless. Under these circumstances, they are seen getting back to their age-old occupation.
The activity is now being carried out in dense pockets of Kasira, Basudevpur, Joda, Dhanurjaypur, Muchuria and Malda.
This correspondent visited Rajia forest where he met a group of people engaged in this work.
“We came to know from our forefathers about existence of the yellow metal in the sand and earth of this area. After closure of mines, we’re back to our traditional occupation of sieving gold granules from sand,” said Manoj Dhibar.
“We along with our family members set out in the wee hours. Our days are spent collecting sand and then putting it through sieves to separate yellow elements. We are not lucky always. Some days, our hard labour of the entire day goes in vain,” he added.
According to Basanti Dhibar and Sulochana Dhibar, they have to spend five to six days a week in hunting gold and stay back in the forest at night. The exercise is carried out in seasons except rainy season, they said.
“Sand is collected from rivers and creeks while it is washed 60 to 70 times with help of some implements,” said Ranagalata and Atar Dhibar.
After the end of the week, the collected yellow granules are brought back home where they are burned with charcoal to purify and melt them into nuggets, they added.
Thereafter, the people sell the nuggets to jewellers at Joda, Jhumpura, Champua and some areas in Jharkhand like Jayantigarh and Chaibasa.
A nugget of gold weighing equal to a seed of ‘Runja’ plant or ‘Kaincha’ seed is valued at Rs 250 to Rs 300.
A six/seven-member Jhara family is able to get gold worth Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,200 per week, they said.
To verify the claim of the community, this correspondent took some purified gold nuggets to a jewellery shop in Joda where a test confirmed its purity.
Paradoxically, the community which collects sparking precious metal is still reeling under poverty while their children are afflicted with malnutrition and deprived of education and healthcare. PNN
