Time Capsules in Peril: Dr Ritesh Arya sounds alarm for Langza’s ancient Fossil Treasures.

KASAULI: The Tethys Fossil Museum & International Geoheritage Research Center, Dangyari, has called for a community-based approach to conserve the approximately 150-million-year-old fossil heritage of Langza and Komic in Spiti.

Dr Ritesh Arya, geologist, palaeontologist and Founder of the Tethys Fossil Museum, recently visited Langza and Komic, located at elevations of around 14,000–15,000 feet. He said the region preserves a rich marine fossil record of the ancient Tethys Ocean, including ammonites, belemnites, bivalves, gastropods, brachiopods and crinoids.

The scientific history of Spiti’s fossils is nearly two centuries old. In 1821, Dr James Gerard made the first substantial recorded collection of fossils from Spiti, at an elevation of about 4,900 metres, including ammonites and belemnites. His collections generated wider scientific interest in the presence of marine fossils at such extraordinary elevations. Later, scientists including Blanford, Stoliczka, Oppel, Griesbach and Diener made important contributions to the study of Spiti’s fossil and geological succession.

Dr Arya said that local villagers have traditionally known the fossil-bearing slopes and, in the past, fossil collection also provided supplementary income. With restrictions on fossil collection and trade, this activity has now largely disappeared.
“The question is not whether banning was right or wrong. The question is whether banning alone can provide a long-term solution for fossil onservation.”

Dr Arya has proposed examining the feasibility of a Langza Fossil Heritage Committee, involving the local community, district administration, Geological Survey of India and scientific institutions. Local youth could be trained as citizen palaeontologists and geoheritage guides to document fossils and help visitors understand their scientific significance, within the applicable legal framework.

The Geological Survey of India has recently declared “Marine Fossil Treasure, Langza Village” in Lahaul and Spiti among India’s Geoheritage Sites. Dr Arya said this recognition should now be followed by visible conservation, scientific interpretation and public awareness at the site. He also called for a Geological and Fossil Museum at Langza, together with in-situ conservation of selected fossil-bearing exposures and scientifically prepared geoheritage signboards explaining the fossils, the ancient Tethys Ocean and the geological evolution of the Himalayas.

According to Dr Arya, combining a museum, protected fossil sites, local guides and scientific documentation could transform Langza into a model geoheritage destination.

“The villagers of Langza and Komic were field palaeontologists in their own way. We should train them, document what they find and make them custodians of their geological heritage.”