HYDERABAD: Independent researchers, palaeontologists and archaeologists from Telangana continue to unravel the mysteries behind rock and fossil formations in the south-eastern parts of the Deccan Traps, which extends into the forest areas of Adilabad and Asifabad districts in the Telangana-Maharashtra border.
The most recent of their discoveries is the columnar basalt formations which were found in the forests of Bazarhathnoor mandal in Adilabad district, which are believed to have been formed some 65 million years ago as a result of volcanic activity and the subsequent settling down of lava during the Cretaceous and Eocene Epoch eras.
According to Kotha Telangana Charithra Brundam president S Haragopal who discovered the formations this week, there are thick piles of volcanic flows widely spread in the Deccan Plateau, called Deccan Traps.
Spread over parts of Telangana, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Madhya Pradesh, these flows spread when lava erupts from fissures in volcanoes. "The columnar basalt formations look as if they are man-made, but they are not," said Haragopal.
According to Ch Venugopal Rao, retired deputy director of the Geological Survey of India (GSI), such columnar basalt formations were known to have occurred in places like St Mary's Islands, a set of four small islands in the Arabian Sea off the coast of Malpe in Udupi.
It was declared a National Geo-Heritage Site and has been GSI’s candidate for UNESCO's Global Geopark Network status. Members of the Kotha Telangana Charithra Brundam are now urging the State government to help protect these formations - which are the first to be found in the State - as protected geo-heritage sites so that further research on it could lead to more findings which could throw light on the Deccan Traps in Telangana.