A heartless
town
By Sangeetha Nair
This is a story of a
gold mining town 110
km from Bangalore
along the old Madras highway. Kolar Gold Fields started in
1880 by John Taylor & Sons, a firm of mining engineers from
London. It flourished into a full-fledged settlement with
luxurious bungalows and sprawling lawns. Clubs with grand
piano, deer and bison heads on 20 feet high walls, skating
rinks et al came into being.
KGF changed hands in 1956 when the state government took
over its controls and again in 1972 when it was converted
into a public sector undertaking BGML. But its fortunes
started declining when the extraction of gold from its
mines became uneconomic. Consequently most of the mines
closed down. Only a few such as Golconda Shaft and Champion
Roof survived till they were mined to exhaustion after
reaching a depth of up to 3.2 km below surface, perhaps the
deepest in the world.
People moved out gradually and KGF became a ghost town from
a Western. The British who came there in search of
livelihood had made the place lively by their exuberant
lifestyle. The first golf tournament was conducted amidst
characteristic enthusiasm of the Englishmen. Only they
forgot to bring along a
trophy from England along with the
other items for the championship. It didn’t matter. A used
steel bucket with the words “The Cup” doubled as the trophy.
The mines were officially closed in 2001. But a good number
of the belligerent labour force still stayed back. They
shuttle the two and a half hour journey to Bangalore
everyday for livelihood. A lurking feeling persists beyond
nostalgia to convey that life is superior to gold for it
transcends beyond nobility of both kinds - metallic or
human.
More reviews about the The Statesman