Real gems
Footloose, NOS, The News International
In the absence of formal gem exploration by the
government, people are privately trying their hands on getting raw stones and gold dust in the
Northern areas
By Shahzada Irfan Ahmed
For a traveller to the picturesque Federally Administered Northern Areas (FANA), there’s a lot to see and store in his memories as well as camera films. From towering mountains, steep gorges, gushy streams and huge glaciers to serene lakes, flowery planes and orchards there’s almost everything that a nature-lover would yearn to behold. Apart from these natural phenomenon the man-made wonder – the Karakoram Highway (KKH) – is another attraction that literally stuns the viewers.
It is quite normal that the tourists travelling on the winding roads through valleys and along different rivers get so absorbed that they are hardly aware of the time passing by.
What is normally missed in this picturesque surroundings is the sight of ordinary people climbing scary hilly terrains on the other side of the rivers. From a distance it appears these people are trying to reach the top of a hill or looking out for greener areas to feed their animals – in most of the cases goats and sheep. A small bag or some cloth tied on their back is a common sight among these people. Similarly one can see people sitting on the banks of the streams and river, carrying utensils of different types in their hands. In a mechanical way, they immerse them in water and withdraw after some time.
While travelling from Gilgit to Skardu by road, one is quite intrigued by this ‘mysterious’ activity. It was on the pointing of a local host – Fazal Mahmood – that one noticed these people along the bank of Stak Nala, a stream located quite close to Skardu. The activity can be seen with maximum clarity at places where the stream becomes narrow and the people at work are hardly a stone’s throw away.
“The people climbing hills are hunting for precious stones and the ones sitting along the banks of streams are looking for gold,” informs Fazal. “This is how exploration is done here,” he adds.
Fazal tells TNS that these practices became popular when some people succeeded in getting their hands on raw gemstones and gold dust accidentally sometime back.
“It is the severe neglect the government has shown to gemstone exploration in these areas that has led to this situation,” says Fazal, adding “when there is hardly any gem exploration and licenses issued by the state, the informal sector is bound to intervene.”
Yousaf Hussain, proprietor of Himalaya Gems, New Bazar, Yadgar Chowk, Skardu tells that people on hunt for precious stones stay in the mountains for days and take sufficient food and clothes to survive in inclement weather. The use of dynamite and Chinese generators to operate drilling equipment is also very common, he adds. “Though they do not come back with bounty every day, they are often lucky,” says Yousaf while pointing towards a lump of raw quartz crystal lying in his showcase.
He tells TNS that the people who collect sand along the riverbanks sift through it and separate gold dust from sand and silica particles. They do find gold dust but the quantity in terms of weight is so low that it does not pay them very well, he adds. Yousaf says tourism in the northern areas and the lot of the locals can improve manifold if the government succeeds in carrying out gemstone exploration at a large scale and exporting them after adding value to it through proper cutting and finishing.
“The precious stones widely available in the region include pink to red and colourless topaz, gem quality tourmaline, emerald, ruby, quartz, morganite, apatite, spinel, and peridot,” says Akbar Hussain, a Skardu-based trader in raw gemstones. He tells TNS that the lack of skilled manpower and gems cutting and polishing activities in the northern areas has impeded economic growth of the area. “Since buyers don’t come to our place we have to go to cities like Peshawar with our merchandise to find good buyers.”
“This is something very risky,” he says. “Two traders who had gone from Skardu to Peshawar for this very purpose were kidnapped for ransom and kept in custody for months.”