Himachal’s Geo Park to display animal and plant fossils

This article was last updated on April 16, 2022

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Animal and plant fossils as well as different kind of rocks will be showcased at an imminent geo heritage park in this tourist resort, an official declared on Sunday. This charming town, some 50 km fromChandigarh, was in the news three years ago when a 25-million year-old rock fossil of a palm tree was discovered by geologists.  

"TheGeoHeritageMuseum, based on the National Museum of Natural History inWashington, will exhibit fossils of plants, animals and minerals. It will also exhibit rocks and ores," said P.C. Sharma, officer in-charge of theNationalHistoryMuseuminChandigarh. He said miscellaneous grouping of flora and fauna was unearthed in and around Kasauli hills, located in the Shivaliks.

"The fossils discovered hold testimony to the fact that Kasauli hills were once occupied by a large number of apes, tigers, elephants, hippos, giraffes, crocodiles and land tortoises," Sharma added. A 25-million year-old rock fossil of a palm tree was discovered at Jagjitnagar near here in 2008. The five-foot-tall and three-foot-wide tree fossil was standing on a rock. According to geologists, such a big palm wood rock fossil has been found for the first time in the history of theHimalayas. Since shifting the wood rock fossil to some other place was not possible, the Geological Survey of India has preserved it where it was discovered.

Experts said about 25 million years ago, flash floods obscured the palm tree trunk, leading to its petrifaction – a process of fossilization in which dissolved minerals replace organic matter.

For location up the geo heritage park, the state tourism department has tied up with the Chandigarh Natural History Museum. Tourism Director, Arun Sharma is knowledgeable that theChandigarhmuseum would provide technical assistance to set up the park. He said Chief Minister, Prem Kumar Dhumal would lay the groundwork of the heritage museum on Monday, and that would open for public by 2013. The museum would also display models of extinct animals like the grand elephant, Stegodon Ganesha Sivatherium, a hippopotamus with six incisors and the giant land tortoise, Colossochelys Atlas.

TheKasauliParkwould be the second fossil park in the state. The Suketi Fossil Park near Nahan town in Sirmaur district is the first such park in the state that displays six life-size fiberglass models of pre-historic animals, whose fossils and skeletons were revealed at the site.