World ‘Secret’ Trapped In Kashmir Hills Gets Geo-Heritage Protection
The GSI recognition takes India’s geo-heritage site count to 35, which will draw more global visitors.
Published : October 16, 2025 at 8:08 PM IST
Srinagar: The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has declared Kashmir's Guryul Ravine as a national geo-heritage site for its wealth of fossils dating back over 250 million years. The site, lying in the outskirts of Srinagar's Khanmoh and considered a record keeper of the world's ‘mother of extinctions’, has the potential to be India’s first UNESCO geo heritage site.
The GSI recognition takes India’s geo-heritage site count to 35, which will draw more global visitors. The sites are recognised for scientific, educational, cultural or geological significance that offer insights into the rare events of Earth. In Jammu and Kashmir, this is the first to get recognition, allowing its protection and maintenance.
A senior GSI official who was present at the fossil park said that they had declared three sites in Kashmir, including Guryul, as geoheritage sites, increasing their global significance. This will also increase its potential for promoting tourism and as a site for global researchers and scientists, he added.
Geologically known as the Vihi district, the Guryul Ravine contain fossils that hold evidence of the Permian–Triassic extinction event. It was one of the major mass extinction events that Earth ever saw when 95 per cent of marine life and 75 per cent of terrestrial life got wiped out 252 million years ago, said prominent geologist and GSI magazine editor Prof. GM Bhat.
“There are four major events in geological history when mass extinctions, or ‘Great Dying’, took place on the earth. Guryul Ravine contains one of the largest sections of the extinction event that occurred 252 million years ago. It reflects the causes of the mass extinction, and studying this is very significant,” he told ETV Bharat. Significantly, the Guryul Ravine preserves the world's first-ever tsunami event.
But more than a decade ago, it was the major site for the livelihood of the adjoining Khanmoh villagers, causing major damage to the site. Bilal Ahmad Bhat, who took quarrying from his forefathers at the site, recalls objecting to the presence of geologists when they would arrive on horseback and excavate rocks from the place. But the villagers have little clue about their evacuation or the significance of the site.
“Sometimes, we stopped them (researchers) from entering the area, as we feared it would hit our mining business. But when the government banned mining in 2007-08, we gradually came to know about the significance of this place,” says Bhat. The 43-year-old has not only shifted his trade but also, alongside villagers, has joined preservation efforts of the Ravine and fears the ongoing construction at the place will affect it.
The dusty, unpaved, hilly road leading to the fossil site is under construction, with workers constructing new structures and concrete walls. The former mining site, whose lease rights were with Bhat's family, is being developed as an industrial estate now.
In 2017, a joint team of geologists from Jammu University, J&K's Geology and Mining Department and University College London inspected Guryul Ravine. They recommended the area be declared as a “Zone of Geological Importance" and sought a complete ban on mining.
Despite this, the GSI had expressed alarm in a letter earlier this year that a part of the site is being developed for industrial units. The letter had highlighted neglect of Guryul Ravine in India compared to the attention given by China to the Meishan D section, a similar PTB site that the Chinese government has promoted as a model of international geostrategic cooperation.
Prof. Bhat, who has been following the site for the last four decades in pursuit of study, said if the encroachment and economic activities dominate, it would impact the global recognition of the site.
"India has 34 heritage sites. But none is recorded in UNESCO geoheritage sites. The best section of the mass extinction on Earth is in Kashmir. Our attempt is to get Guryul recorded as a global heritage site with UNESCO. But the government should preserve this site," the geologist added.
The Guryul section has drawn interest from global researchers and institutions since the 19th century. In the 1850s, British geologist Henry Godwin-Austen is documented as the first to have discovered fossils at Guryul. For more than two decades, since 1990, Prof. Bhat said the political turmoil in Kashmir impacted research works, hitting global recognition of the site.
In the meantime, China projected their 0.27 metres of transition zone, which is smaller compared to the 2.68 metres of the Guyul section, which received global recognition after extensive research work.
“But we lacked research to highlight what was preserved in these rocks and lost that opportunity in 2004," the professor said. "We undertook geological research work with foreign collaboration in 2007. Currently, we are exploring it and have published 30 papers. Five foreign groups from the USA, Japan, Taipei, China and Europe are working with us. In the next 15 years, we will complete this work.”
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