Kasauli to get another attraction: Geo-Fossil Park

In July 2008,while holidaying in Kasauli,Chandigarh-based art collector N P S Randhawa had stumbled upon the mammoth tree fossil. On further research by geologists,including Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery curator P C Sharma,the fossil was found to be of a nearly 25 million years old palm tree. Later,many international specialists,including those associated with the United Nations Organisation,also studied and acknowledged the finding.

The same fossil will now be put on public display along with other such fossils found in the previous few years along the Shivalik foothills.

The Himachal Pradesh tourism department is likely to sign an agreement with the Chandigarh Museum and Art Gallery to set up the park,according to Director (Tourism) Dr Arun Sharma.

“The technical and academic assistance to set up the park as an attraction for tourists and conservationists will be provided by the Chandigarh museum. N P S Randhawa and P C Sharma will sign the agreement with the department on March 22 in Shimla,” he said. The estimated expenditure is yet to be worked out.

The Chandigarh museum is also likely to extend its expertise to the fossil park at Suketi where researchers had found fossils of animals,after which studies to link their existence to the evidence of evolution and prehistoric times had been carried out.

The park is on the foothills of Shivaliks from where fossils of pre-historic animals were excavated. The park displays life-size models of these extinct animals like a grand elephant,a hippopotamus with six incisors,giant land tortoise,a sabre- toothed tiger and a crocodile.