Webinar organized by Panjab University on “3 million years ago the vicinity of Chandigarh”

Chandigarh February 28, 2022

The Department of Library and Information Science in collaboration with the Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, successfully organized a webinar today (i.e., February 28, 2022) through online mode. Dr. Shiv Kumar, Chairperson of the department started the webinar welcoming the speaker and participants. Prof. Rupak Chakravarty, Coordinator of today’s webinar introduced the speaker and theme of the webinar.  Prof. Rajeev Patnaik, Speaker from Department of Geology, Panjab University, Chandigarh delivered the talk on “Chandigarh 3 million years ago”. He highlighted about Chandigarh, situated at the Himalayan foothills called the Siwaliks, houses some of the amazing fossils going back in time to almost 3 million years. The continuous movement of the Indian plate has uplifted sedimentary layers dating back millions of years. Starting from the receding of Tethys, when the ancestors of whales and sharks lived very close to the northern margin, followed by the development of the Himalayan Foreland  Basin that housed creatures such as a variety of Elephants, Horses, Giraffes, Camels, Tortoises, Sabretooth tigers, Birds, Crocodiles, fishes etc. The talk delved into how fossils were unearthed in the vicinity of Chandigarh. How do we know about their age? Where these animals have come from? and How do we know what we know about their diet and ecology? Also, what are the steps we should take to preserve this enormous heritage of ours? The talk was very informative and interesting. At the end, the question-answer session was conducted and the speaker satisfied the curiosity of participants about the conditions of that time. Today’s webinar was attended by 65 participants including many academicians from all over the country. Dr. Shiv Kumar presented a vote of thanks.