Salkhan Fossils Park, officially known as Sonbhadra Fossils Park, is a fossil park in Uttar Pradesh, India. It is located 12 km from

Robertsganj Robertsganj (), formally known as Sonbhadra (), is a city and a municipal board in Sonbhadra district in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Uttar Pradesh. Robertsganj is located in the south-eastern corner of the state. Roberts ...

, near Salkhan village on state highway SH5A in

Sonbhadra district Sonbhadra (also known as Sonebhadra) or Sonanchal is the second largest district by area of Uttar Pradesh after Lakhimpur Kheri. The district headquarters is in the town of Robertsganj. Sonbhadra is also known as the "Energy Capital of India" f ...

. The fossils in the park are estimated to be nearly 1.4 billion years old. The fossils appear as rings on the boulders and are scattered in Fossil rings on boulders in the park which is spread over an area of about 25 hectares in the Kaimoor Wildlife range.Fossils Park - A Geological heritage
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Geography

The fossils found in the Sonbhadra Fossils Park are

algae Algae ( , ; : alga ) is an informal term for any organisms of a large and diverse group of photosynthesis, photosynthetic organisms that are not plants, and includes species from multiple distinct clades. Such organisms range from unicellular ...

and

stromatolites Stromatolites ( ) or stromatoliths () are layered sedimentary formations ( microbialite) that are created mainly by photosynthetic microorganisms such as cyanobacteria, sulfate-reducing bacteria, and Pseudomonadota (formerly proteobacteria) ...

types of fossils. The park is spread over an area of about 25 hectares in

Kaimur Range Kaimur Range (also spelt Kymore) is the eastern portion of the Vindhya Range, about long, extending from around Katangi in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh to around Sasaram in Rohtas district of Bihar. It passes through the Rewa and Mi ...

, adjacent to Kaimoor Wildlife Sanctuary. It comes under jurisdiction of the State forest department.

Development and research

Geologists have been aware of the fossils found in the present-day park area since the 1930s. People who have carried out research in the area include Mr. Auden (1933), Mr. Mathur (1958 and 1965), and Professor S. Kumar (1980–81). On 23 August 2001, the area was featured in an article written by journalist Vijay Shankar Chaturvedi for the Hindi newspaper ''

Hindustan ''Hindūstān'' ( English: /ˈhɪndustæn/ or /ˈhɪndustɑn/, ; ) was a historical region, polity, and a name for India, historically used simultaneously for northern Indian subcontinent and the entire subcontinent, used in the modern day ...

''. Subsequently, it was formally inaugurated as a fossil park by District Magistrate Bhagawan Shankar on 8 August 2002. An international workshop was organised in December 2002, attracting participation from 42 delegates from India and abroad. Canadian geologist H.J. Hoffman was impressed by the fossils, and remarked that he had not seen such "beautiful and clear fossils" anywhere else in the world. In 2004, researcher Mukund Sharma further explored the area. In 2013, the state government sanctioned 12.5 million for the development of the Salkhan Fossils Park.State govt sanctions Rs 2.25 cr for Salkhan Fossils Park
!-- The headline says 2.25 crore, but the article says that only 1.25 crore out of this is for the park. -->

References

{{Reflist Fossil parks in India Tourist attractions in Sonbhadra district Geology of Uttar Pradesh Robertsganj