Lost archives

India is fast losing its geologically critical sites in the Himalayas to developmental activities, destroying forever records that not just tell us about past climates and floral and faunal evidence, but also provide data that can aid in predicting monsoonal and seismic activities, all because the country lacks laws to protect such locations

- ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY

GOVERNANCE / GEOLOGY

YOU ARE looking at one of the most critical sites in Himalayan history," says Manoj Kumar, former director of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), pointing at a valley along the Kalka-Shimla highway in Himachal Pradesh's Solan district. With multi-storeyed buildings and terrace farming filling up the landscape, there is nothing that distinguishes the valley from any other in the area. "If it does not look different, it is because it has been destroyed due to construction of houses and settlements. Just four-five years ago, you could have seen geomorphological features—the cuts of the slopes, the inclinations of the rocks on the bare mountains that tell the story of the evolution of the range itself,” Kumar adds.

The valley is among a handful of spots in India where the main boundary thrust (MBT)—a 2,400 km belt in the Himalayas, running through Pakistan, India, Nepal and Bhutanhas been studied. Formation of the Himalayas started 50 million years ago, when the Indian plate crashed into the Eurasian plate. But MBT was formed much later, some 10 million years ago, as part of the same process. These features cannot be studied just anywhere on the belt. "It is possible to identify new geological sites but the process of studying them, including estimating the age of each layer of the rock, could take decades. The process is also expensive,” Kumar adds.

Pointing at the valley, Kumar says this was a prized section, a Mecca for geologists, and has been studied by students from all over the world since it was first noticed by an Irish geologist in 1864. "It has been completely destroyed due to mindless construction and road widening activities,” says an agitated Kumar, who accompanied this reporter to the spot and to many others on the Kalka-Shimla highway that have faced destruction due to developmental activities.