India’s Dinosaur Fossils Face Risk of Illegal Trade Abroad

Rapid Summary

• Rich fossil beds in Western India, mainly found in open coal mines, are notable to palaeontology but face preservation challenges.
• Sunil Bajpai and his team discovered a 47-million-year-old fossil of Vasuki indicus, an ancient snake over 49 feet long.
• Concerns arise due to the absence of a national fossil repository or laws governing extraction and preservation in India.
• Fossils worldwide increasingly fall victim to commercialization,seen through auctions such as Sotheby’s selling dinosaur fossils for millions.
• In April 2024, reports showed T.rex fossils largely owned by private collectors rather than public institutions globally; similar risks apply to india’s prehistoric record.
• Notable Indian collections like the Ranga Rao-Obergfell Trust remain unsorted and vulnerable due to limited infrastructure and legal safeguards.
• Local enthusiasts like schoolteacher Vishal Verma rescue fossils but struggle against theft; examples include stolen dinosaur eggs from Mandav’s museum despite security defenses.
• A draft plan for an Indian national fossil repository exists but remains stalled.

Indian Opinion Analysis

The discovery of Vasuki indicus highlights India’s untapped potential as a global hub for palaeontological research given its rich prehistory. However, its lack of legal protections or infrastructure around fossils leaves these cultural treasures vulnerable to theft or international auction markets, as evident globally with rare items drifting into private hands-a trend amplified by commercial incentives.

India’s prehistoric record holds immense scientific value tracing evolution across millennia-from ancestral whales emerging along Indian coasts post-Gondwanaland isolation to dinosaur nests tucked into ancient hills-but preserving it requires urgent legislative action alongside allocated resources toward cataloging artifacts systematically via proposed repositories.Absent intervention may result not only in historical loss but also reputational damage tied directly back commodifying heritage: lessons echoed both regionally stolen relics at museum-level cases highlighted above risking broader conservation gaps forza systemic larger story-missing dispersals displaced layers Read Moreére[**.remainder-endmiseks-slipped..abovefullarticlereadfull-linkrawtext…