Lucknow/Sonbhadra: Salkhan Fossils Park in Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, has been added to UNESCO’s Tentative List of World Heritage Sites. The site is known for housing some of the world’s oldest microbial fossils—stromatolites embedded in sandstone believed to be around 1.4 billion years old.
The nomination process has involved coordination between the Uttar Pradesh Eco-Tourism Development Board and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, which conducted scientific studies on the park’s rock formations. The formal dossier for permanent UNESCO listing is currently under preparation and will be submitted to the central government.
The fossils at Salkhan have been compared with those at other prominent sites globally. For instance, Yellowstone National Park in the US has fossils around 500 million years old, while Canada’s Mistaken Point and Joggins Fossil Cliffs have fossils aged 550 and 310 million years respectively. In contrast, the stromatolites in Sonbhadra are significantly older.
The park spans approximately 25 hectares and is located about 15 km from Robertsganj, between the Kaimur Wildlife Sanctuary and the Vindhya mountain range. The stromatolites are considered among the earliest known evidence of life and are of considerable interest to the scientific community.
The site was added to the tentative list after a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in June 2024 between the Eco-Tourism Board and the Birbal Sahni Institute. The nomination process includes field inspections, dossier reviews, and UNESCO’s evaluation, which typically takes one to two years.
Tourism officials stated that if the nomination proceeds as expected, the site could receive full World Heritage Site status by 2026.
