TIME OUT
Our own dino park
INDU BALACHANDRAN
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The third largest dinosaur graveyard in the world is in Balasinor, just 90 km from Ahmedabad.
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There is a Jurassic Park right here in India. And guarding the Park’s 65-million-year-old eggs is a fiercely passionate, dinosaur-loving Princess.
“Here, like to hold one?” says Princess Aaliya Babi, transferring a canon-ball sized dinosaur egg onto my hand. I look at it in complete awe, much like those kids did in the film.
I am at Balasinor in Eastern Gujarat, just an hour-and-a-half’s drive away from Ahmedabad. Early in the morning, the 30-something, gregarious Aaliya Babi had driven me down from the Garden Palace Heritage Hotel, her ancestral home where my sister and I were staying, to a huge tract of barren, rocky land that has seen droves of excited palaeontologists land here from around the world. That was in the early 1990s. Their findings made them declare the ground they stood on to be the third biggest dinosaur hatchery/graveyard in the whole world.
Princely lizard
And after reconstructing the fossilised remains of their most significant find — the skull and spine of a gigantic dinosaur, the scientists gave it a befitting name: Rajasaurus narmadensis. Or “Regal Lizard” of the Narmada Valley.
The early 90s, coincidentally, was also the time “Jurassic Park” hit our cinemas. The time when all the world got obsessed with dinosaurs. Aaliya tells us that as a curious teenager, she had seen several scientific teams from the US, Russia and Taiwan arrive at Raiyoli Village, the site of the hatchery — just a 15-minute drive from her Palace. And with her father, Nawab Mohamed Salabatkhan Babi turning their large Palace into a heritage hotel, it was natural that the scientists came to stay with them, the only good hotel around. Just as it became natural for Aaliya to develop a life-long interest and passion for dinosaurs.
Accompanying the scientists on several trips, she learnt all about these awesome 30-ft tall reptiles that once walked in her neighbourhood, learnt to identify their fossilised parts lying embedded in the rocks, knew how to make out the elbow joint from the knee…lessons that would soon be imparted to us, as we excitedly approached the board painted “Dainasor Park” (probably painted by a proud English-speaking villager of the area.)
Tough task
We heard what a challenging task it was to educate and garner cooperation of this very village, when the significance of the Park was first made public. Knowing something important was going on, villagers started running away with valuable rocks — and that’s when Aaliya became a fierce crusader for the Park’s protection, even personally shooing away cattle coming here to graze, stopping villagers, and even random tourists carrying precious pieces as souvenirs. And later, helping persuade the Gujarat government to fence off the 70 acre land.
Now, those villagers have been taught to respect the motu praani that roamed in their backyard, and quickly inform the palace if poachers are found trespassing. They even act as guides to visitors coming to the hotel, having been personally trained by Aaliya. Apparently many Balasinori residents, now settled in Mumbai and the U.S., come here with their friends, on a proud return to their heritage.
Yet there’s an outraged cry that not enough is being done to promote this as a prime tourism attraction. “Look, there’s a lone guard there, stationed to chase away intruders…” Aaliya points out. This can only happen in India, we laugh ruefully, even as the sleepy guard straightens up to startled attention, seeing that the Shahzadi is bringing in yet another guest to the Park.
Photos: SHUBHA PRIYA
Buried Secrets of the ages... Princess Aaliya Babi
Soon we were walking to the rocks, getting our free lessons on dinosaur hunting. On a huge flat rock were the clear fossilised spinal markings of a very large beast…this was where two dinosaurs were found, lying side by side! We could well imagine scientists standing right here, thrilled with their important find. We soon knew how to differentiate between an ordinary rock and the ones with a distinct fibrous bony content… What a place to bring kids!
We hear funny, though alarming, stories about villagers using these “dino rocks” as chutney grinders in their homes! By now Aaliya knows the area so well, she can instantly detect when someone has made off with a valuable rock… the reason why many of the pieces, including a fossilised dinosaur egg, are now safely kept in her own house in a mini museum. Aaliya points out to the Dinosaur Interpretation Centre that is finally coming up, right near the Park. Here, hopefully, some of the reconstructed dinosaurs found in Gujarat can be displayed; even if they are now in the Calcutta museum.
Where’s the hype?
Imagine all this happening in say, the US, we said. There’d be fanfare and hoopla, uniformed tour guides with dino heads, souvenir shops with stuffed colourful dinos, dinosaur rides and dinosaur film shows… All we could see was a huge cement cast of a roaring T-Rex made by a bunch of art students, as a gift to the Park, and a smaller model of the Triceratops, silhouetted on a nearby hillock. We stop to take some pictures.
Tourism potential
Hopefully all this will change soon, when the Gujarat government realises what a superb potential this place has to draw families with kids — particularly because of its central location, and just an hour and a half drive away from Ahmedabad!
The fossilised dinosaur egg.
Back at our palatial home-stay, we had a taste of the famed Balasinori cuisine that this place promotes, along with its other rich heritage. Then a visit to the mini-museum in the pretty garden outside, where I was allowed to hold the dinosaur egg in my hand.
Which of the three kinds of dinosaurs found here would have emerged from this one, I wondered. My sister clicks a picture of it for the article I’ve already started writing in my head. Then I safely return the fossilised egg to its resting place in the glassed case, for many others like me to see too. And feel the same thrill of actually holding this remarkable 65-million-year-old gift, from the treasury of our earth’s past.
Quick facts
Discovered accidentally by geologists mining the grounds in 1983
Park becomes protected area in 1997
Over 1,000 eggs recovered from the 70-acre area
Rajasaurus narmadensis biggest find
Reconstructed dino now in Calcutta museum
Park part of “Shiva crater” caused by meteor millions of years ago
Getting there
From Ahmedabad, drive 90 km to Balasinor on excellent roads.
Raiyoli Village is a 15-minute drive from here (handy road signs will guide you)
Stay with erstwhile royal family at Garden Palace Hotel, Balasinor.
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