Friday, March 4, 2011

Balasinor: Dino tourism in India’s Jurassic park

A tiny town called Balasinor in Gujarat is home to the one of the largest dinosaur fossils sites in the world.

There's a fossilized dinosaur nesting ground and a prehistoric burial ground, but you don't know about it because no one is bothering to set it up as a UNESCO Geo Park.

According to the Geological Survey of India's Director of Palaeontology, D N Mohabey, the Gujarat Tourism Department and Gujarat Ecology Commission showed no interest in providing details on the site for a recommendation to UNESCO to set up a park around it.


“I met members of the Gujarat Ecology Commission, Gujarat Ecological Education and Research (GEER) and the Tourism Department for giving me the necessary data on the various areas including Ravioli in Balasinor taluka, where unique dinosaur fossil beds exist. But they made me run from pillar to post,” Mohabey told the Indian Express newspaper.

Paleontologists believe that at least seven species of dinosaur lived here and researchers have uncovered fossils of about 10,000 dinosaur eggs, making Raiyoli the third largest hatchery in the world.

In 2003 they also discovered a new species here, which belonged to the Tyrannosaurus Rex family. It was given the name Rajasaurus narmandensis, meaning princely reptile from the Narmada.

The site was discovered accidentally in 1981 when geologists were conducting a mineral survey of the area. Since then, the finds have attracted scientists and tourists from around the world, triggering off what the Gujarat state calls "dinosaur tourism."
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