Faded dot that made history
S. Raghunath on the discovery that made India one of the largest steel producers in the world

On a torrid hot summer afternoon in 1902, two tired bedraggled men walked into the Secretariat building in Nagpur in the, then, Central Province. For months, they had been tirelessly scouring the hilly jungles of Chanda district of Chota Nagpur on a strange quest-moving from one offbeat spot to another, picking up lumps of rocks and breaking them to see if these contained any iron but their search had proved barren. Disappointed, they decided to return to Nagpur and surrender their prospecting licences and go home.

At the Secretariat, the official they wanted to meet was out. So they strolled into the museum across the road to await his return but the official was never met.

At the museum, it appeared, they had an appointment with destiny. On a dog-eared map, they saw a faded dot that indicated the possible existence of iron ore deposits in the neighbouring Durg district. Following this clue, they stumbled upon a 15-year-old report by an Indian geologist P.N. Bose, which confirmed the indication. Quickly folding up their licences and putting them back in their pockets, the two men came out of the museum and headed straight for Durg.

When the two prospectors reached the area indicated on the map and climbed a hill, the earth literally rang under their feet. The hill they were standing on was nearly 70 per cent pure iron. Thus were discovered the great iron ore deposits of Central India.

Not long afterwards, the two men, following up on another report by P.N. Bose discovered the fabulous iron ore deposits in Mayurganj of Orissa. The two intrepid prospectors were none other than Dorabji Tata, son of the great Jamsetji Tata and C.M. Weld, an American geologist.

Dorabji and Weld had undertaken their historic venture at the behest of Jamsetji Tata, who wanted to set up an iron and steel industry in India to break the British monopoly.

Their discoveries led to the establishment of the Tata Iron and Steel Works (now Tata Steel) in Jamshedpur in 1907. Their discoveries confirmed the fact that India possessed huge iron ore deposits, which could support and sustain an indigenous and modern steel industry, so much so, India is today the world’s fifth largest steel producer in the world.