CHENNAI: A writ plea has been made in the Madras High Court to declare Kolakkanatham fossil site in Ariyalur district as a paleontological heritage site.

A vacation bench comprising Justices S Rajeswaran and KBK Vasuki, before which the public interest writ petition from Rajashree of Kalamassery in Kerala came up for hearing on Wednesday, ordered notice to the Union Ministry of Mines, State Forest department, Geological Survey of India and the Ariyalur District� Collector, returnable by� June 15.

According to the petitioner,� the Kolakkanatham fossil site was the only one of its kind in South India.� It had valuable landscape and it was a rare treasure house of paleontology, which generated scientific interest and was visited by research scholars from all over the world.

The Cauvery basin extended along the eastern coast of India, bounded by 08-12 degree north latitude and 78-80 east longitude.� It was formed as a result of Gondwanaland fragmentation during the drifting of Indian-Sri Lankan landmass system away from Antartica/Australia plate in the jurassic/early cretaceous period.� The abundant mineral resources and fossil remnants in this place were ample proof for the transgressions and regressions of the sea and the topographical changes occurred in the basin in early and late cretaceous period (before 65 million years ago).� There was proof of the existence of lives and their extinction due to the interference of various factors.

While so, the forest department was taking steps� to convert the site as forest area and dumping waste materials.� The proposal would change the landscape and gradually permit the land grabbers to intrude into the fossil site. Ultimately, it would result in the loss of a big treasure of fossils and close down one of the world’s richest fossil collections, the petitioner contended.