HUMANS OF BANDHAVGARH

Recent explorations by historians and archaeologists in the Bandhavgarh National Park have shone a torch on the hitherto unlit history rather, prehistory of the Baghelkhand region in eastern Madhya Pradesh.

- Rahul Noronha

The groundbreaking findings fill out the story of humankind in India.

Historically, archaeological research into India's ancient past has invariably tended to focus on urban centres. This extensive project marked a departure-for the first time, it took the tools of archaeology right into the core area of a designated tiger reserve. The results were fascinating: numerous sites yielded prehistoric stone tools, evidence of habitation from circa 5000 BC or even earlier. The material record from Bandhavgarh had been scanty-only going back to 200 AD-but the dating was by itself not a cause of astonishment. The Narmada basin to its south shows very early human presence, so do other sites on the Kaimur range, in which the reserve falls. What was breathtaking was the wealth of evidence on the life of early forest dwellers, with their technology developing around the use of chert, agate and chalcedony.