Kashmir's Guryul fossils, repository of the 'Great Dying' event, awaits its moment in the sun
Union Budget 2026 has proposed transforming 15 archaeological sites into experiential cultural hotspots. Could Guryul make it to the list?
Locals in Khonmoh and Zewan near the sprawling Zabarwan hills, 20 km south of Srinagar, stood amused to see the intermittent arrival of foreigners on horsebacks initially, and later in Ambassador cars, all to collect samples out of the colossal rocks. Turns out, the Guryul Ravine keeps the repository of the world’s mother of extinctions, colloquially the ‘Great Dying’ event, that witnessed 90 per cent of marine and 70 per cent of terrestrial life vanishing forever.
Considered among the world’s rarest, Guryul was last October recognised as a national geo-heritage site of international importance by the Geological Survey of India (GSI). The prolonged turmoil in Kashmir had delayed this validation and eclipsed decades of extensive research work carried out by the GSI along with Japanese scientists.
Guryul’s Permo-Triassic Boundary (PTB) vestiges, marking the life’s transition from the Palaeozoic to the Mesozoic era approximately 251 million years ago—in literal terms from trilobites and giant swamp forests to dinosaurs in a largely empty world post earth’s greatest-ever catastrophe—serve as the nature’s living laboratory and position India to claim a place in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in the category of fossil sites.
“We’re ticking all the boxes for the proposal to UNESCO on Guryul’s recognition; it has to include culture, land and biodiversity hotspots of historical importance all along. We’re thinking over it and the pitch shall be in the works soon,’’ a top GSI official told INDIA TODAY.
India currently has 69 sites on UNESCO’s tentative list, with the body okaying one site per country each year.
Guryul’s rich fossils offer it a rare edge over its Chinese counterpart, the Meishan section, which has for long been serving as the global reference point for the PTB. Guryul’s fossil thickness, ranging from 2.6 m to 6.1 m, as per GSI document, sharply contrasts China’s 0.27 m to 0.36 m. Had peak militancy in Kashmir in the late 1990s not hampered with crucial research work to meet the conditions of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), scientists say Guryul’s nomination as the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of PTB was certain.
“This site represents one of the few-known complete PTB sections in the world with the characteristic PTB fossils of Hindeodus parvus and Otoceras woodwardi. The section also hosts the Griesbachian dienerian substage boundary within the Khanmuh Formation (in Jammu and Kashmir) and has global potential to be one of the best sections for conodont bio-zonation study for worldwide correlation,” states a GSI report on Guryul.
In 1993, the Permian-Triassic Boundary Working Group (PTBWG) under the ICS had proposed four sites for the GSSP—Meishan of Zhejiang, Guryul Ravine of Kashmir, Shangsi of Sichuan and Selong of Tibet. But, as research reports suggest, the Shangsi and Selong sites fell poor on the valuable fossil evidence and Kashmir to its turmoil, leaving the field open for Meishan.
Now, experts are aiming to petition the ICS and propel Guryul to the centrestage for historical references. “Thirty-eight scientists from Europe, America, China and other countries have been working on the site since 2007. It continues to throw new observations, and we aim to bring this up to the international community for evaluation soon. We recently identified even younger fossils, by 2.7 million years, than those in the limelight,” G.M. Bhat, Guryul’s four-decades-old researcher and former head of Jammu University’s geology department, told INDIA TODAY.
The International Geological Congress, which brings together thousands of geologists from across the world and is next set to be held in 2028, is being eyed to bring the spotlight on Guryul.
Geologically known as Vihi district, Guryul has for ages served as a haven for British geologists. Its fossils are said to have been first discovered by Robert A.C. Godwin Austen, a British geoscientist, in 1886 and find a mention in Sir Walter Lawrence’s famous book Valley of Kashmir. It has attracted hundreds of international geologists keen to explore paleo-life forms and paleoclimate dynamics.
A 2013 research by Michael Edward Brookfield, a Canada-based geological scientist who has done extensive work on Guryul, established it as a recordkeeper of the world’s first known tsunami events, drawing a correlation with the volcanic eruptions of Siberian Traps that are considered to be triggers behind the ‘Great Dying’ event. But many scientists have contested the study under the belief of it being a local seismic activity.
The GSI recognition has ignited hopes for its preservation but concerns loom large. Khonmoh is home to industry, and Bhat claims the Jammu and Kashmir SIDCO (State Industrial Development Corporation) has been encroaching into Guryul’s territory for commercial interests.
Guryul has battled years of mining at the hands of cement manufacturers and locals; activism by Bhat and others alike pushed the government to declare it a protected site in 2017. However, the government’s plans to rechristen it as an international fossil park never materialised.
“Our access to the site has been hampered by construction works led by J&K SIDCO. This is the importance we’re lending to our priceless treasures. It shows how serious we are towards its conservation,” laments Bhat. The grim scenario can be gauged from Brookfield’s 2007 letter to then prime minister Manmohan Singh, requesting Guryul’s conservation.
Scientists rue the lack of legal framework and regulatory procedures in GSI’s declaration of geo-heritage sites, saying it hardly leads to their preservation. “We’ve been pitching with the central government to bring a legislation on preserving geo-heritage sites. Without a law, geological sites remain vulnerable,” Satish Tripathi, secretary, Society of Earth Scientists, and former deputy director general of GSI, told INDIA TODAY. Tripathi stressed on the need to develop heritage sites as geo-parks and bring them under the tourism map.
In 2021, UNESCO accorded international recognition to geodiversity, putting it as fundamental to safeguard heritage sites for the future. While Guryul’s recognition opens the scope for geo-tourism in Kashmir, other fossil sites scattered around the Valley remain in abysmal condition and under threat from the mining mafia and encroachers.
“All fossil sites need to be preserved. The government should set up fossil museums for tourists and encourage educational institutions to organise visits to such places. This will raise interest,” said Rouf Hamza Bodha, a botany lecturer who, along with colleague Manzoor Javid, in 2021 claims to have discovered multiple fossil sites, preliminary dating back to over 400 million years, in south Kashmir’s key tourist destinations, such as Aharbal, Daksum and Kokernag.
Union Budget 2026 may have just provided some green shoots to heritage preservation. The Budget has proposed transforming 15 archaeological sites into experiential cultural destinations. Hopes are high in Kashmir that the Guryul would make it to the coveted list.
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Locals in Khonmoh and Zewan near the sprawling Zabarwan hills, 20 km south of Srinagar, stood amused to see the intermittent arrival of foreigners on horsebacks initially, and later in Ambassador cars, all to collect samples out of the colossal rocks. Turns out, the Guryul Ravine keeps the repository of the world’s mother of extinctions, colloquially the ‘Great Dying’ event, that witnessed 90 per cent of marine and 70 per cent of terrestrial life vanishing forever.
Considered among the world’s rarest, Guryul was last October recognised as a national geo-heritage site of international importance by the Geological Survey of India (GSI). The prolonged turmoil in Kashmir had delayed this validation and eclipsed decades of extensive research work carried out by the GSI along with Japanese scientists.
Guryul’s Permo-Triassic Boundary (PTB) vestiges, marking the life’s transition from the Palaeozoic to the Mesozoic era approximately 251 million years ago—in literal terms from trilobites and giant swamp forests to dinosaurs in a largely empty world post earth’s greatest-ever catastrophe—serve as the nature’s living laboratory and position India to claim a place in UNESCO’s World Heritage List in the category of fossil sites.
“We’re ticking all the boxes for the proposal to UNESCO on Guryul’s recognition; it has to include culture, land and biodiversity hotspots of historical importance all along. We’re thinking over it and the pitch shall be in the works soon,’’ a top GSI official told INDIA TODAY.
India currently has 69 sites on UNESCO’s tentative list, with the body okaying one site per country each year.
Guryul’s rich fossils offer it a rare edge over its Chinese counterpart, the Meishan section, which has for long been serving as the global reference point for the PTB. Guryul’s fossil thickness, ranging from 2.6 m to 6.1 m, as per GSI document, sharply contrasts China’s 0.27 m to 0.36 m. Had peak militancy in Kashmir in the late 1990s not hampered with crucial research work to meet the conditions of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS), scientists say Guryul’s nomination as the Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) of PTB was certain.
“This site represents one of the few-known complete PTB sections in the world with the characteristic PTB fossils of Hindeodus parvus and Otoceras woodwardi. The section also hosts the Griesbachian dienerian substage boundary within the Khanmuh Formation (in Jammu and Kashmir) and has global potential to be one of the best sections for conodont bio-zonation study for worldwide correlation,” states a GSI report on Guryul.
In 1993, the Permian-Triassic Boundary Working Group (PTBWG) under the ICS had proposed four sites for the GSSP—Meishan of Zhejiang, Guryul Ravine of Kashmir, Shangsi of Sichuan and Selong of Tibet. But, as research reports suggest, the Shangsi and Selong sites fell poor on the valuable fossil evidence and Kashmir to its turmoil, leaving the field open for Meishan.
Now, experts are aiming to petition the ICS and propel Guryul to the centrestage for historical references. “Thirty-eight scientists from Europe, America, China and other countries have been working on the site since 2007. It continues to throw new observations, and we aim to bring this up to the international community for evaluation soon. We recently identified even younger fossils, by 2.7 million years, than those in the limelight,” G.M. Bhat, Guryul’s four-decades-old researcher and former head of Jammu University’s geology department, told INDIA TODAY.
The International Geological Congress, which brings together thousands of geologists from across the world and is next set to be held in 2028, is being eyed to bring the spotlight on Guryul.
Geologically known as Vihi district, Guryul has for ages served as a haven for British geologists. Its fossils are said to have been first discovered by Robert A.C. Godwin Austen, a British geoscientist, in 1886 and find a mention in Sir Walter Lawrence’s famous book Valley of Kashmir. It has attracted hundreds of international geologists keen to explore paleo-life forms and paleoclimate dynamics.
A 2013 research by Michael Edward Brookfield, a Canada-based geological scientist who has done extensive work on Guryul, established it as a recordkeeper of the world’s first known tsunami events, drawing a correlation with the volcanic eruptions of Siberian Traps that are considered to be triggers behind the ‘Great Dying’ event. But many scientists have contested the study under the belief of it being a local seismic activity.
The GSI recognition has ignited hopes for its preservation but concerns loom large. Khonmoh is home to industry, and Bhat claims the Jammu and Kashmir SIDCO (State Industrial Development Corporation) has been encroaching into Guryul’s territory for commercial interests.
Guryul has battled years of mining at the hands of cement manufacturers and locals; activism by Bhat and others alike pushed the government to declare it a protected site in 2017. However, the government’s plans to rechristen it as an international fossil park never materialised.
“Our access to the site has been hampered by construction works led by J&K SIDCO. This is the importance we’re lending to our priceless treasures. It shows how serious we are towards its conservation,” laments Bhat. The grim scenario can be gauged from Brookfield’s 2007 letter to then prime minister Manmohan Singh, requesting Guryul’s conservation.
Scientists rue the lack of legal framework and regulatory procedures in GSI’s declaration of geo-heritage sites, saying it hardly leads to their preservation. “We’ve been pitching with the central government to bring a legislation on preserving geo-heritage sites. Without a law, geological sites remain vulnerable,” Satish Tripathi, secretary, Society of Earth Scientists, and former deputy director general of GSI, told INDIA TODAY. Tripathi stressed on the need to develop heritage sites as geo-parks and bring them under the tourism map.
In 2021, UNESCO accorded international recognition to geodiversity, putting it as fundamental to safeguard heritage sites for the future. While Guryul’s recognition opens the scope for geo-tourism in Kashmir, other fossil sites scattered around the Valley remain in abysmal condition and under threat from the mining mafia and encroachers.
“All fossil sites need to be preserved. The government should set up fossil museums for tourists and encourage educational institutions to organise visits to such places. This will raise interest,” said Rouf Hamza Bodha, a botany lecturer who, along with colleague Manzoor Javid, in 2021 claims to have discovered multiple fossil sites, preliminary dating back to over 400 million years, in south Kashmir’s key tourist destinations, such as Aharbal, Daksum and Kokernag.
Union Budget 2026 may have just provided some green shoots to heritage preservation. The Budget has proposed transforming 15 archaeological sites into experiential cultural destinations. Hopes are high in Kashmir that the Guryul would make it to the coveted list.
Subscribe to India Today Magazine