The Ministry of Mines had released the The draft Geo-heritage Sites and Geo-relics (Preservation and Maintenance) Bill, 2022 in December 2022.
Key points of bill
- The bill aims to protect and preserve these sites for “geological studies, education, research, and for future generations as it is a non-renewable asset”.
- The Bill gives GSI the power to declare sites as having ‘geo-heritage’ value, take possession of relics (fossils, rocks) that rest in private hands, prohibit construction 100 metres around such a site, penalise — with fines up to ₹5 lakh and possibly imprisonment — vandalism, defacement, and violations of directives of a site by the Director General of the GSI.
Concerns of bill
- Some researchers have raised concerns over too much powers vest entirely in the Geological Survey of India (GSI), a 170-year-old organisation that comes under the Ministry of Mines.
- They argue that rather than have all authority in the Director General, GSI, there needs to be a broader committee of experts from a wider range of institutions.
- This would mean that the interests and difficulties faced by researchers, who actually work in the field, are kept in mind.
Why Geo-Heritages required protection
- India’s rich geological monuments that capture the Earth’s tumultuous, evolving history in the form of rocks, sediment, and fossils, are at the grave risk of being wiped out.
- Landscapes are an archive. They are an archive of processes in the earth that form its history.
- Geology has never been a part of India’s public consciousness the way wildlife or forests have been.
- If one looks at old colonial maps, everything without forest or tree cover was considered a wasteland, and that idea perpetuates today. The idea that landscapes have an intrinsic value is missing.
Geo Heritages in India
- Geological Survey of India (GSI) declares geo-heritage sites/ national geological monuments for protection and maintenance.
- The subcontinent’s collision with Eurasia over 50 million years ago, which birthed the Himalayas, is considered among the most significant geological phenomena in its history.
- The GSI has declared 32 geo-heritage sites, including the Siwalik Fossil Park, Himachal Pradesh; Stromatolite Fossil Park, Jharmarkotra Rock Phosphate deposit, Udaipur district, Akal Fossil Wood Park, Jaisalmer, but several are in stages of disrepair.
- Other than protecting places of geological interest, the need for a law that specifically protects sites of geo-heritage value follows from India being a signatory to the UNESCO Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, since 1972.
| S. No | Geological heritage site /National geological monument | S. No | Geological heritage site /National geological monument |
| ANDHRA PRADESH | 18 | Kishangarh Nepheline Syenite, Ajmer Dist. | |
| 1 | Volcanogenic bedded Barytes, Mangampeta, Cuddapah Dist. | 19 | Welded Tuff, Jodhpur Dist. |
| 2 | Eparchaean Unconformity, Chittor Dist. | 20 | Jodhpur Group – Malani Igneous Suite Contact, Jodhpur Dist. |
| 3 | Natural Geological Arch, Tirumala Hills, Chittor Dist. | 21 | Great Boundary Fault at Satur, Bundi Dist. |
| 4 | Erra Matti Dibbalu- the dissected and stabilized coastal red sediment mounds located between Vishakhapatnam and Bhimunipatnam. | MAHARASHTRA | |
| KERALA | 22 | Lonar Lake, Buldana Dist. | |
| 5 | Laterite near Angadipuram PWD rest house premises, Malapuram Dist. | CHATTISGARH | |
| 6 | Varkala Cliff Section, Thiruvanatapuram Dist. | 22 | Lower Permian Marine bed at Manendragarh, Surguja Dist. |
| TAMILNADU | KARNATAKA | ||
| 7 | Fossil wood near Tiruvakkarai, South Arcot Dist. | 24 | Columnar Lava, St Mary Island Udupi Dist. |
| 8 | National fossil wood park, Sattanur, Tiruchirapalli Dist. | 25 | Pillow lavas near Mardihalli, Chitradurga Dist. |
| 9 | Charnockite, St. Thomas Mount, Madras. | 26 | Peninsular Gneiss, Lalbagh, Banglore |
| 10 | Badlands of Karai Formation with Cretaceous fossils along Karai – Kulakkalnattam Section, Perambalur District. | 27 | Pyroclastics & Pillow lavas, Kolar Gold fields, Kolar Dist. |
| GUJARAT | HIMACHAL PRADESH | ||
| 11 | Sedimentary Structures – Eddy Markings, Kadan Dam, Panch Mahals Dist. | 28 | Siwalik Fossil Park, Saketi, Sirmur dt., |
| RAJASTHAN | ODISHA | ||
| 12 | Sendra Granite, Pali Dist. | 29 | Pillow Lava in lron ore belt at Nomira, Keonjhar dist. |
| 13 | Barr Conglomerate, Pali Dist. | JHARKHAND | |
| 14 | Stromatolite Fossil Park, Jharmarkotra Rock Phosphate deposit, Udaipur Dist. | 30 | Plant Fossil bearing Inter-trappean beds of Rajmahal Formation, upper Gondwana sequence around Mandro, Sahibganj dist. |
| 15 | Gossan in Rajpura-Dariba Mineralised belt, Udaipur Dist. | NAGALAND | |
| 16 | Stromatolite Park near Bhojunda, Chittaurgarh Dist. | 31 | Nagahill Ophiolite Site near Pungro, |
| 17 | Akal Fossil Wood Park, Jaisalmer Dist. | SIKKIM | |
| 32 | Stromatolite bearing Dolomite / Limestone of Buxa Formation at Mamley, near Namchi, South district. |
