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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