Lucknow, June 22: The Yogi government has achieved a major achievement in including Salkhan Fossils Park of Sonbhadra, one of the world’s oldest fossil parks, in the tentative list of World Heritage. The details of Salkhan Fossil Park can now be seen on UNESCO’s website https://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/6842/. This will give a new flight to tourism at the international level. At present, Salkhan Fossils Park has been included in the tentative list of UNESCO’s World Heritage.
At the same time, in order to the instructions of CM Yogi, a dossier is being prepared by the Eco Tourism Development Board to include the Fossils Park in the permanent list of UNESCO, which will soon be submitted to the Government of India. It is believed that Fossils Park can be included in the permanent list of UNESCO in the next 2 years.
Principal Secretary Tourism Mukesh Meshram said that Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is constantly taking important steps to promote tourism in the state. Along with this, efforts are also being made to promote eco tourism in the state. It is the result of CM Yogi’s efforts that the Eco Tourism Development Board has recently started operating Vistadome coaches in the tourist train providing rail connectivity from Katarniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary to Dudhwa Tiger Reserve.
He said that at the same time, under the leadership of CM Yogi, the Uttar Pradesh Eco Tourism Development Board has achieved a major achievement of getting the Salkhan Fossils Park, located near Salkhan village, about 15 km from Robertsganj in Sonbhadra, one of the oldest fossil parks in the world, registered in the Tentative List of UNESCO’s World Heritage.
He said that efforts were being made by the department for this for a year. To get the Fossils Park registered in the UNESCO list, an MoU was signed on 26 June 2024 between the Uttar Pradesh Eco Tourism Development Board under the leadership of the Chief Minister and the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany located in the capital. Under this, the institute studied the fossils present on the Fossils Park stones, in which fossils of 1400 million years old algae and stromatolites were found, which provide evidence of ancient life on earth. On the basis of these evidences, an application was made to include the park in the UNESCO list.
Tourism Director Prakhar Mishra said that to include any heritage in the UNESCO World Heritage List, it is first included in the temporary list. After this, a dossier is prepared to get it registered in the permanent list and further process is done. This process takes about a year. Also, the UNESCO team comes and studies the place, which is included in the permanent list of UNESCO.