Karawwa is a village in the town of
Kahawatta
Kahawatta ( si, කහවත්ත, ta, கஹவத்தா) is a town in the Ratnapura District, Sabaragamuwa Province, Sri Lanka. It is located in the central mountains of Sri Lanka at an elevation of .
The town and its surrounding area is ...
in
Ratnapura District
Ratnapura ( Sinhala: රත්නපුර දිස්ත්රික්කය, Tamil: இரத்தினபுரம் மாவட்டம்) is a district of Sri Lanka in the Sabaragamuwa Province.
The gem-mining centre of Sri La ...
in
Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...
.
Name
It was named after the herb "karaw" or
Caraway
Caraway, also known as meridian fennel and Persian cumin (''Carum carvi''), is a biennial plant in the family Apiaceae, native to western Asia, Europe, and North Africa.
Etymology
The etymology of "caraway" is unclear. Caraway has been ...
.
Geography
The area is surrounded by "Kahawathu kanda" (the mountain of Kahawatta) a small part of the Sabaragamu mountain range which is one of the main mountainous areas in Sri Lanka except the central hills in the middle of the island.
Wae ganga(wae rever) is flowing hiding thousands of precious stones in its territory and becoming a border to the area. It is a branch of Kalu ganga which is considered to be one of the four main rivers in Sri Lanka.
Mining
Karawwa is one of the main areas where
gem
A gemstone (also called a fine gem, jewel, precious stone, or semiprecious stone) is a piece of mineral crystal which, in cut and polished form, is used to make jewelry or other adornments. However, certain rocks (such as lapis lazuli, opal, a ...
mining
Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...
takes place. Most of the areas in Kahawatta town are damaged by gem mining.
Because of the underground holes dug for gem mining the area is dangerous. One of the buildings of Kahawatta base hospital has already been submerged and is out of use. The area often suffers from
landslide
Landslides, also known as landslips, are several forms of mass wasting that may include a wide range of ground movements, such as rockfalls, deep-seated grade (slope), slope failures, mudflows, and debris flows. Landslides occur in a variety of ...
s which may also be as a result of this underground cavities. Gem miners dig a basic pit of 10 to 15 feet in diameter until they find the strips of "
illam
Illam (), also referred to as Mana, is the Malayalam word for the house of a Namboodiri Brahmin. In the traditional lineage system used for the classification and identification of homes based on the castes of Kerala, South India, an Illam ser ...
" (the special
stratum
In geology and related fields, a stratum ( : strata) is a layer of rock or sediment characterized by certain lithologic properties or attributes that distinguish it from adjacent layers from which it is separated by visible surfaces known as ei ...
of soil, in which precious stones are liable to be found). As that is a stratum it exists horizontally, hence miners have to dig borrows called "dona" horizontally. After all the illams have been taken off the mine is refilled with soil, but donas remain and make the area dangerous.
References
External links
''a School in the area''*http://www.srilankagemautho.com
*http://www.palagems.com/ceylon_sapphire_bancroft.htm
Populated places in Ratnapura District
Populated places in Sabaragamuwa Province
{{SabaragamuwaLK-geo-stub