Tree fossils, which are said to be about 200 to 300 million years old, have been found at Bhainse village of Kaski district, Nepal. A team of archaeologist led by Chief Archaeologist of the Department of Archaeology (DOA), Sukra Sagar Shrestha, had adventitiously found the fossils of a tree belonging to the Paleolithic age.
In fact, the first incident whereby the fossils of a tree that existed before the evolution of mankind have been found in the country. According to geologists, the tree fossils, which were thought to have been embedded with the earth, could have come to the terra firma owing to the movement of the seismic waves inside the earth. Generally, the trees embedded within the earth transform into coals but sometimes they remain as they were owing to the lack of adequate chemical reactions and earthquakes. According to Shrestha, the discovery of a totally new kind of fossils has added another dimension to the geological study.”
No study has been made yet in the field of tree fossils in the country and such fossils have also not been kept in the Nature History Museum till date.” , He said. He further added that the diameter of the tree fossils is about 3m and it is about 5m in height. “the trees of the carboniferous age were used to be extremely large but the one we have found isn’t so gig because it is badly damaged”, he said.
A piece of the fossil , which looks like a stone , is kept in Pokhara Regional Museum and it would be open for the public after DOA makes necessary study about the same. According to Shrestha , the carbon Dating is used to study the archaeological remnants that are 100 to 1,000 years old but in the case of million to billion years old fossils and relics we have to use “thermo luminescence Dating ( TLD ) . The LTD technology is only in vogue in the US and it costs more than Rs 300 hundred thousand of the study,” he said. Meanwhile, Shrestha said that Tribhuvan University hasn’t shown any interest in this regard.
A team of archaeologist comprising of Shrestha , Uddav Acharya, an archaeologist under DOA, and Uttam Khanal, a representative from Pokhara Regional Museum, had found the tree fossils at Bhainse Village during July-August. “We came across only one fossil but I think there must be umpteen in the vicinity, ” , the team leader said adding that the village could be developed as “an open museum for tree fossils, ” Shrestha stressed. Bhainse village can be reached via Mahendra Bridge, Kaukhola, Jarkatya, Tarika and Chitepani of Pokhara. The team had found the fossils about 150m away from the village.
(Source: Spacetime Today daily, OCTOBER 21, 2001)