Fake pearls being sold in Hyderabad

Glass and plastic duplicates are beginning to replace real pearls, according to the Twin Cities Pearl Jewellers' Association Ajay Bhai Motiwale, who said genuine traders were losing more than a quarter of the Rs1,000 million pearl jewellery market to fake pearl producers.

Ironically, the experts' counsel came during the Nizam's jewellery exhibition scheduled to close on January 24 after a two month run at the Salar Jung Museum in Hyderabad earning gate and souvenir money of Rs5.6 million till January 8.

The dealer blamed the lack of a clear policy to enforce quality with government enforcing agencies and said it was mainly domestic buyers who were cheated as foreign buyers who bought pearls in bulk, brought their own gemologists with them to check its quality.

The pearl dealer said fake pearl jewellery came mainly from Nepal and Tibet and was sold in both small and popular jewellery shops in Hyderabad, exploiting Hyderabad's repute for pearl jewellery.

Fake jewellery was made for as little as Rs100 and sold in Hyderabad for as much as Rs1,000, taking advantage of buyers's gullibility.

Motiwale said buyers believed natural pearls which were irregular in shape unlike cultured and semi-cultured pearls, could not be duplicated. But, not so, as natural pearls could be duplicated these days, he said.

The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) in Hyderabad acknowledged the fake pearls were being sold, and has said it could intervene only if the association first lodged a complaint with the consumer forum, as BIS could then introduce the same Hallmarking check for gold jewellery started last year.