Environment group appeals to J&K Govt to protect 252-million-year-old fossil site

The Environmental Policy Group (EPG) has appealed to the state government to take steps for protecting the 252-million-year-old Guryul Ravine Fossil Park located in Khonmoh, Jammu and Kashmir.

The EPG, in a statement issued on Saturday, expressed concern over the establishment of a large illegal garbage dumping yard near the fossil park. “The act not only constitutes a grave ecological violation but also endangers a globally significant geo-heritage site that dates back 252 million years,” the EPG said.

They highlighted that the site is critically important, as it is the only known geological formation that preserves definitive evidence of the world’s first recorded tsunami, embedded within its ancient sedimentary layers.

“The Guryul Ravine is globally acknowledged by geologists, palaeontologists, and climate scientists as one of the most important Permian-Triassic boundary sites in the world. The fossil record at Guryul Ravine offers a rare glimpse into the ecological collapse and recovery phases that followed the extinction. It serves as a natural laboratory for studying Earth’s climate history, mass extinctions, tectonic activity and evolutionary processes,” the group said.

Shedding light on what made the Guryul Ravine unique, the EPG mentioned it was due to the presence of tsunami-generated sedimentary structures, identified and documented by geoscientists, that confirm the earliest evidence of a massive oceanic disturbance triggered during the Permian-Triassic transition.

These findings have been cited in international scientific journals and attract global research interest, making the site not only a national but also a world heritage asset, it added.

“The establishment of a waste dumping ground in such close proximity to this ecologically and scientifically sensitive area is a shocking act of environmental vandalism. It directly violates several key environmental protection laws, including the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, the Wildlife (Protection) Act, 1972, and the Solid Waste Management Rules. 2016,” the EPG said.

The group warned that the illegal dumping poses an immediate risk to the fossil beds, fragile sedimentary layers, and the overall ecological balance of the region. They cautioned that if this negligence is not addressed, it could destroy one of the few accessible records of the Earth’s most “dramatic evolutionary moment”.

The EPG appealed to Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and the chief secretary to intervene at the highest level and issue immediate directions for corrective action.

They also called for the park and its surrounding buffer zone to be officially declared as a no-dumping zone and designated as an eco-sensitive area under relevant provisions of the environmental and heritage protection law.