Geopark network to benefit NE

President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam has shown keen interest in development of a geopark network in the country. Recently he told a delegation that he would involve himself personally once his term as the President of the country was over. The network is to benefit the region like India’s NE region, the most. For, these are the regions, which store many geological marvels that may focus on the past of the earth in an illuminating way.

Disclosing this here, Manjit Kumar Mazumdar of the Department of Geology, Pragjyotish College here said that he along with Dr Arun Deep Ahluwalia met the President a few days back. At the meeting the President gave them the above assurance. The President also arranged a meeting of Mazumdar and Dr Ahluwalia with Secretary of the newly created Ministry of Earth Sciences Dr PS Goel.

In the meeting of Dr Goel with Mazumdar and Dr Ahluwalia it transpired that the Ministry would take into consideration the need for preserving and promoting geodiversity of the country in a holistic manner by setting up geoparks in the coming days. However, at present the Ministry would require sometime to streamline its activities. The Ministry was created on July 12, 2006 with Kapil Sibal as the Minister.

It needs mention here that the concept of geoparks has been gaining popularity in the developed countries. Several developing countries have also attached importance to it. The UNESCO has recognized this concept with due earnest. So far 50 geoparks from across the countries are affiliated to the UNESCO Global Geoparks Network (GGN). For the GGN affiliation, a national geopark network of the country is a must. The GGN affiliation is equivalent to that of the World Heritage status of the UNESCO.

Mazumdar says that he along with Dr Ahluwalia, at present a visiting professor with the University of Cincinnati, USA, has drafted a vision document for initiating a geopark network in India.

Several programmes in accordance with this vision document are in the offing. These include— publication of geopark and geotourism-related books, national and regional level sensitization meetings, workshops, training programmes etc for promoting the concept of geopark network in the country, Mazumdar says.

He expresses the hope that once the geoparks start functioning in the country in the way they are functioning in the European countries, China, Australia and in other parts of the globe, ample job opportunities would start coming up in the tourism sector.

Mazumdar is presently associated with the first-of-its-kind task in the country for guiding a couple of dissertations related with geotourism in Indian National Parks, as part of the Master for Tourism Management course in Pragjyotish College.

He also had the opportunity together with Dr Ahluwalia, to talk to Dr Ahmed Fahmi, the Programme Specialist of the Science and Technology Section of the UNESCO, on the proposed Indian national geopark network very recently. Dr Fahmi was very supportive and promised all possible help in this connection in the days to come.

Meanwhile, Assam’s Lok Sabha MP Dr Arun Sarma has put a question in the Lok Sabha in connection with the geopark network and it is expected to be listed soon.

Mazumdar says that the country has enough potential for developing geoparks. He recently presented two papers on the concept at the Second UNESCO International Conference on Geoparks held at Belfast, Northern Ireland. However, there are two concepts— UNESCO and the European—on it. Mazumdar and Dr Ahluwalia have been advocating the UNESCO concept for the country.

In their vision document on the topic, they said that despite having immense potential, the caves in Jaintia Hills have been affected by the large-scale limestone mining. Quarrying activities have affected the Frog Beds of Mumbai at Worli, while similar activities have practically destroyed the type locality of charnockite in the Rifle Hill range at Pallavaram, Tamil Nadu.

At Raiyoli village of Kheda district in Gujarat, thousands of dinosaur fossils have been lost due to mining and villagers there have dug out hundreds of the fossils. These fossils have been sold to tourists and souvenir hunters, say Mazumdar and Dr Ahluwalia

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