Villupuram Member of Parliament D. Ravikumar has urged the Union Ministry of Mines to immediately intervene and stop quarrying in the periphery of the National Fossil Wood Park in Thiruvakkarai.
The Hindu had recently highlighted about the threat posed to the fossils by unchecked quarrying.
In a letter to the Union Mines Minister Prahlad Joshi, Mr. Ravikumar said that the fossil park maintained by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) was a repository of spectacularly preserved trees that are at least 20 million years old.
The trees belong to the ‘Mio-Pilocene’ age and give a glimpse of the composition of flora that existed in the pre-historic age. The fossils were first documented by M. Sonnerset, a naturalist in 1781 and are spread over an area of 274 acres surrounding the park.
“Tamil Nadu government has given licenses to a number of crushing units and quarries around the park. The mindless quarrying has already destroyed hundreds of precious fossil woods in Kadagampattu village near Thiruvakkarai. Now it is threatening the existence of the National Fossil Wood Park,” he said. The Ministry should immediately intervene and stop quarrying and protect the park, he demanded.
