Geoconservation and Geotourism Potential of India

India is blessed with great geological diversity as it has recorded more than 3.5 billion year’s history of evolution of Earth, some of the sites/sections are unique to the globe. The recent discovery of youngest ‘Meghalayan age’ from a limestone cave of Meghalaya is internationally recognised. The Indian rock record bears the signatures of various global geological events including evolution of life, mass extinction, making of Himalaya, meteoritic impact craters etc. Indian dinosaur 'Rajasaurus' created curiosity in the children. Interestingly, large number of geoheritage sites are associated with well-known cultural heritage sites and biodiversity hotspots. However, proper scientific details of geoheritage sites and their potential to develop as a geotourism hotspot has not been discussed. Geotourism potential of India in extensive but so far it has not attracted attention of authorities and agencies of the Tourism sector. The present book provides a platform for them to plan and explore. Development of geotourism will lead to conservation of geoheritage sites and both financial and scientific aspects will be covered.

Dr. Satish C. Tripathi is former Dy. Director General, Geological Survey of India; founder general secretary of The Society of Earth Scientists; Editor, e-Journal Earth Science India and Series Editor, Society of Earth Scientists Series by Springer. Dr. Tripathi contributed immensely on the geology of Son-Narmada Lineament Zone including detailed study of dinosaur fossil bearing sedimentary succession of Madhya Pradesh. His contributions on the geology of Lesser Himalaya and Trans-Himalaya of Spiti-Ladakh are widely referred. He has published over 34 research papers in national and international journals and edited two books. He has organised over 12 national and international conferences and field workshops. Off late Dr. Tripathi started working on geological heritage conservation and development of geoparks in India. In 2019, he organised ‘Walk to Save our Geoheritage’ in six different cities across India, and submitted Status Report and Draft Legislation for the conservation of geoheritage to Government of India. He has credit to bring Indian geoheritage sites to International stage and with his efforts, the IUGS has recognised Indian geoheritage sites under First 100 and Second 100 IUGS Geoheritage Sites. Dr. Tripathi is currently involved in establishment of geoparks in Bagh, Chitrakoot, Zawar and Ramgarh with support of State governments.

Dr. Naresh Chandra Pant is former Senior Professor of geology in University of Delhi. He has a total academic and research experience of over 41 years in which over 26 years was with professional institutions (ONGC and Geological Survey of India). Prof. Pant has published over 110 research papers and edited four books with significant research outputs in the form of establishing supercontinent reconstruction, described high pressure (HP) metamorphism for the first time from an Indian Archean craton (Bundelkhand) implying processes similar to present day subduction, applied innovative and uncommon application of EPMA for estimating the bulk composition of selected micro domains which is essential for understanding phase transformations where chemical systems are of few millimetres scale, inferring sub-ice geology of east Antarctic shield from proximal marine sediments and many others. He has made major contribution in establishing, developing and nurturing micro-domain characterizationlaboratories in India and propagating the chemical geochronology in the country. He has received prestigious National Mineral Award and Antarctic Silver Jubilee Award. He is a Fellow of Electron Microscope Society of India. Prof. Pant is involved in management and development of Indian Antarctic Program for over a decade, besides being one of the Chief Officers of the Geosciences Group of the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) for the similar duration.

Dr. Sameeta Rajora is an officer of the 1992 batch of the Indian Forest Service borne on the Madhya Pradesh Cadre. She is the Chief Executive Officer of Madhya Pradesh Ecotourism Development Board and an expert on community based ecotourism and conservation outreach programs. She has a Ph. D. in Botany and her extensive work is on sacred groves protected by the Bhil Community. Dr. Rajora has a vast experience of over 30 years in the field of Forest and Wildlife Management. She has successfully designed and anchored the largest conservation education program “Anubhuti” with an outreach to about 3 lakh participants, mostly school children. Dr. Rajora’s interest towards fossil conservation began in the year 1999 when she was Divisional Forest Officer, Dhar, where she first saw the Bagh dinosaur fossils, wood and marine fossils. Ever since she has been creating awareness and working for the protection of fossils. Madhya Pradesh Government declared the fossil rich forest area of 89.4 hectare with Dinosaur nesting sites as ‘Bagh Dinosaur National Park’ in the year 2011. She has co-authored a paper on the study of Dinosaur Fossil National Park, Bagh region to develop it as a UNESCO global geopark published in 2023 in International journal of Geoheritage.