Loot easy where Rajasauras roamed

A couple of Gram Rakshak Dal volunteers in khaki amble about with lathis, willing guides to occasional visitors. Located 20 km from Balasinor town of Kheda district, the park was marked out in 1983 after two GSI scientists found fossils here.

The site is famous, and locals guide visitors along the narrow road on which it takes an eternity to cover the distance the gargantuan reptiles must have covered in a few steps. But locals hardly care that they live close to a palaeontological treasure. ‘‘Till recently villagers used to ferry rocks away from here for strengthening the foundations of their houses,’’ says Naresh Chauhan. ‘‘For experts, they may be valuable, but for us they are just rocks.’’

Villagers like Chauhan say the park has been plundered for mementos by outsiders, including foreigners. They say they can tell scientists from curio-hunters by the fees offered for help: ‘‘official’’ types offer about Rs 30, others hundreds.

The barbed-wire fence was put up a year back after officials noticed that GRD volunteers could do little against the plunderers who descended upon the park. ‘‘There used to be thefts, but they have stopped after guards were deployed,’’ says J.M. Patel, a geologist with the state government’s Mines and Minerals Department in Nadiad. ‘‘Some of the land in the park is farmed, but it is land allotted by the panchayat.’’

Till the fence came up, villagers did not know the worth of the rocks. ‘‘It was fenced only after someone took away a rock worth Rs 7 crore. Aa toh sona ni nagari chey (This is a city of gold),’’ says the all-knowing Chatursinh. GSI officials say Raiyoli is a world-renowned site for dinosaur experts, but they prefer not to comment on the thefts: their job, they say, ends with research and discovery.

Some villagers say that even now they will dig if they are paid to, guards or no guards.

‘‘With a few youngsters, we can shoo away the guards,’’ says a youth. ‘‘For Rs 50 per day, we’ll dig up stuff for anyone.’’

Now the state plans a dinosaur theme park with realistic models recreating the Jurassic era. The Rs 200-crore project hasn’t taken off in years, but the government hopes to execute it by this Navratri, during which the state is being showcased for foreign investment. Though the government is cash-strapped and no private party has agreed to take up the project, Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Ltd Managing Director D.K. Rao seems optimistic. He says the whole project may take three years, but by Navratri, ‘‘a park showing the evolution and life of the animals will be in place.’’

Radheshyam, a villager, doesn’t understand what the fuss is all about. ‘‘All we want is a proper road,’’ he says. ‘‘Let them lay the road first, then they can take away all that they want to.’’ While that doesn’t look like it is happening soon, there’s one change the find has wrought: villagers swear that dinosaurs visit them in their dreams.