Experts find 'clear' clay beds in Saraswati

Nitish Sharma

Kurukshetra, April 30

Researchers at the Centre of Excellence for Research on Saraswati River (CERSR) are elated with the findings at a site of Saraswati river paleochannel at Bohli village on Kurukshetra-Ladwa road. They believe that the findings will help in understanding the Quaternary paleo-climatic history of the Saraswati-Yamuna plains.

In order to develop a Saraswati pond, excavation work was started at Bohli village recently. Meanwhile, a team of CERSR also visited the site.

Prof AR Chaudhri, Director, CERSR, said “The Saraswati river had been a major perennial river channel of Haryana. The present site falls on the paleochannel which crosses the NH-44 at Pipli near Kurukshetra. The width of the Saraswati channel at Pipli is more than 3 km and the site at Bohli shows similar sedimentological characteristics as were witnessed at Mugalwali in Yamunanagar. For the first time, such clear sedimentary structures (evidence of the flow of the river) have been witnessed. Besides, the climatic evidence in the form of clay beds has also been found in very good condition. Such clay beds haven’t been found in the previous findings. The present site is unique if compared to other sites identified so far.”

Dr Rajesh Ranga and Subhash Rajput collected samples for geochronological analysis and those

will be analysed at CERSR and at other labs of the country for further evaluation which would help understand the time period when the Saraswati was flowing and the time when its flow dwindled.

At Bohli village, thick sand deposits were encountered in a 10m deep trench. The site is a depression which is more than 400m long and 100m wide and it is littered with clay and silt.

The team has started getting evidence about the presence of a mega-river paleo-channel after the removal of the top 4m of clay-rich topsoil.

Chaudhri said that initially, it appeared to be a depression created by locals for soil excavation, but a closer examination revealed an entirely fascinating picture. In these deep strata, they identified 24 different layers of varying sediments which tell a story about the evolutionary history of the paleo-river.

“At Bohli, we could identify definite higher Himalayan sand with coarse muscovite flakes that have been derived out of the crystalline rocks exposed in the Higher Himalaya. Typical light grey sand at Bohli matches very well with similar sand examined at Bishangarh and Bhor Saidan in Kurukshetra district where a depositional history of the past 14,000 years of the Saraswati is exquisitely documented in sediment record,” he said.