Thar Desert Fossil Hints At India's Saraswati River

December 7, 2002

JAIPUR, INDIA, December 2, 2002: Geologists in India say they have found an

elephant fossil in the Thar desert of Rajasthan, supporting earlier theories

that the vast desert was once a fertile area. They said the discovery also

lent credence to the belief that a mighty river, named in the ancient Hindu

Vedic texts as Saraswati, flowed through the region thousands of years ago.

Senior geologist B.S. Paliwal said the elephant fossil was discovered in a

village in Nagaur district, about 185 miles from the state capital of

Jaipur, during gypsum mining. Professor Paliwal, who is the head of the

geology department at the Jai Narain Vyas University, termed the find a

"mammoth discovery for the scientific fraternity." The fossil dated back

thousands of years, from the middle Holocene epoch. The remains were found

embedded in a gypsum layer little more than 6 feet from the surface.

Professor Paliwal said during the Pleistocene epoch, India touched Eurasia

and there were indications that Asian elephants moved south due to the

prevailing ice-age in the northern hemisphere. "It proves again that there

were once rivers like Saraswati and civilizations were flourishing at their

banks," Professor Paliwal said.

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