New Delhi: President A P J Abdul Kalam has showered praises on the scientist who made the country proud by producing the biggest black pearl in the world and termed the development as a "major scientific achievement".

Dr Ajay K Sonkar, who produced the pearl through black lip oyster 'Pincdata margaritifera', met with the President yesterday (Aug 16, 2004) and apprised him of the research work carried out in Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Kalam showed interest in the research and asked him to think about generating job opportunities through the development as the rare pearl developed in the country is worth 30,000 dollars in international market, the scientist told sources.

President also showed willingness to visit the island sometime, Sonkar told adding, "Once I reach the islands I will send a formal invitation to him."

The development assumes significance as not even a single pearl was produced in a period of 30 years in the government research institutes with several research missions going on in the region.

Sonkar produced a black pearl of 8 mm nucleus in a period of seven months after he was allowed to do research activities in the island.

Speciality of the technology developed by him was that there was no need to kill the oyster to produce the pearl. The oyster could again be used for the purpose, he said.

Sonkar, who has established the most advanced hatchery to produce a stock of millions of juvenile oysters in the region, claims that it was not possible to develop black pearl of this variety anywhere in the world as its production depends on the oyster species and the environment.

Quality of the nucleus specially developed for the purpose in his lab was better that what they use in other parts of the world, he said.

"A panel of International scientists, which examined the nucleus used to produce pearl, termed the nucleus a jewel in itself," Sonkar said.

In the first phase of his experiments, Sonkar operated on 1000 oysters and subsequently 905 oysters produced the pearls, and the success-rate has stunned the scientists across the world as no one had earlier achieved more than 60 per cent success, the scientist claimed.

The 22 mm nucleus-sized pearl, which the scientist had developed in 1996 in his hometown Allahabad, is still the world's largest and superior quality pearl, he claimed.