History
Kolar was under the Kingdom of Mysore. Tipu Sultan was the ruler of this kingdom after Hyder Ali till 1799 when the British Defeated and Killed Tipu in the Battle of Seringapatnam. The British Decided to hand over Tipu's territory to the princely state of Mysore.
Before the handover, the land was to be surveyed. To complete this task, Lt John Warren was summoned. Warren had heard about the rumors of gold digging by villagers since the Chola dynasty period. To authenticate this rumor, he announced a reward for showing him the yellow metal. As soon as the announcement spread among villagers, they reached Warren and showed him to isolate gold grains by washing out the mud.
Warren concluded in his report that for every 56 kg of mud, one grain of gold could be extracted. Later, several studies were done between 1804 and 1860 but, nothing was found.
Journey to the Birth of K.G.F.
The story started in 1871 when Michael Fitzgerald Lavelle, a retired Irish soldier from the British Army, came across an article published in the 1804 Asiatic journal. The article was about a possible gold reserve in Kolar. Agitated by the report of Warren, Lavelle took a bullock cart trip to Kolar. He did an investigation and identified potential mining locations.
In 1873, he approached the government seeking a license to mine. However, the Government provided permission only for coal mining by saying gold mining isn't feasible for this place. Lavelle again insisted government for the search for gold deposits.
Ultimately, he got the land on 20 years lease to mine in Kolar and put the foundation of modern mining in India. Supported by Maj Gen Beresford of the Madras staff corps in Bangalore, he along with McKenzie, Sir William and Col William Arbuthnot formed a syndicate with several other army officers called 'The Kolar Concessionaires Company Limited', which took over the mining operations.
Later, the syndicate approached a company, John Taylor and sons. They brought state-of-the-art mining engineering to India. Engineers from Norwich, England started arriving and things got changed.
The Golden Era
As the mining operations started growing, the British planned to construct one of India's First Power Plants to fulfil the power requirements of mining machinery. In 1900, a plan for a hydroelectric plant in the Caveri river was proposed and soon, candles and lamps were replaced by bulbs. Everything was electrified with an uninterrupted power supply.In 1902, gold extraction reached its peak with 40 GPT (gram per ton). All the gold extracted was transported directly to England, without sharing even a small amount with the villagers and miners.
Little England and Coolie Lines
Kolar became "Little England" for British engineers and people from across the globe. Bungalows, Gymkhanas, Clubs and weather made Kolar, an ideal home for them. On the other side, the "Coolie Lines" were built for native miners. Life without proper living facilities and general resources in a small shed was no less than a hell.The safety of the miners was never on the priority list of company management. Every day rock burst, fire and rock fall used to kill many people, but management was passing them off by saying it is unavoidable. Even, they refused to pay compensation to the miners.
In the fear of gold smuggling, companies used to punish the miners for small crimes and were questioned for unaccounted wealth. In this way, White men systematically exploited KGF and its natives.
End of Glitter
As the year of independence was coming closer, gold reserves in KGF also started falling. Mining experts started leaving KGF for gold mines in Ghana and West Africa. Even after independence, KGF was still exploited by the British company for the next 10 years.
In 1956, KGF was nationalized by the government of India. For further years, mining was operated under the state government. In 1972, the Central government took over the KGF by forming Bharat Gold Mines Limited (BGML).
In the coming 1980s, the gold reserves at KGF depleted significantly, thus mining was not profitable. Finally, on 28th February 2001, KGF was closed.
Present Day K.G.F.
At present around 3 lakhs of the population are living in there. Power cut and water supply shortage, which was never an issue of KGF during its operational period, has become a very serious problem in that area. Workers are surviving in poverty and lacking good living conditions. People are suffering from several diseases due to the unscientific way of dumping mining wastes.
The modern mining period of KGF lasted for 121 years. But KGF's life is probably yet not over. In 2016, the Indian Government announced the auction of K.G.F. to start mining again. There are possibilities in the coming future that South India's first electrified city, which has now become a ghost town, gets its glory again.
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