Basalt rock pillar, formed six crore years back, found in Maharashtra
Yavatmal, Jul 2: A basalt rock pillar, formed around 60 millions years ago from volcanic lava, has been discovered during road construction work at a village in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra, a leading geologist has said.
The rock formation was found last week at Shibla-Pardi village in Wani-Pandhakawda area of the district, he said.
Talking to PTI, environmentalist and geologist Prof Suresh Chopane said, It is a natural rock called columnar basalt formed from the lava of a massive volcanic eruption in Maharashtra 60 million years ago. The hexagon-shaped pillars were formed by cooling and contraction.
Chopane, a former member of the regional empowered committee of the Union Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, said the Wani area of Yavatmal district is geographically very ancient.
"In the same area, I had found 200-million-year, old stromatolites ((layered sedimentary formations) depicting many early life forms on earth of Neoprotezoic age and six-million-year-old conch shell fossils near Pandharkavada and Maregaon tehsil, he said.
Until 70 million years ago, there was an ocean on the now Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, he said.
In this undated photo, shows around 6 crore-year-old rare ‘Columnar basalt’ formed from the lava after the volcanic eruption was discovered in Shibla-Pardi village in Yavatmal district of Maharashtra. (PTI)
But 60 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, geographical events took place on the earth and from today's Western Ghats, hot lava flowed in the form fissures to Yavatmal district and central Vidarbha and up to Gujarat, known as Deccan trap, he said.
The volcano covered an area of five lakh square kms in central India. In Maharashtra, 80 per cent of the rock formations are basalt igneous rock, which comprise plagioclade feldspar, auguite and accessory mineral like magnetite, he said.
Chopane said that in India, St Mary's Island in Karnataka is famous as a tourist destination for such columnar basalt.
In Maharashtra, before Yavatmal, these rocks have been found in Mumbai, Kolhapur and Nanded. When a hot lava flows into a river and suddenly cools down, it shrinks and becomes hexagon-shaped, forming such stone pillars called columnar basalt, he said.
"These rocks are very important from the geographical point of view and the administration should protect stone pillars and the area found there," he said.
He also claimed that Yavatmal district was inhabited by giant dinosaur-like creatures and animals 60 million years ago. There were dense forests, but due to this huge volcanic eruption in Maharashtra, all the forests and living creatures turned to ashes.
Talking to PTI, spokesperson of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in Nagpur, Rashtrapal Chavhan, said such rock formations are found commonly.
"It had been found at many places in India and it was exposed in Wani area of Yavatmal during road excavation work...This columnar basalt rock formation is about 64 million years old," he said.
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Bill making CM chancellor of RDPR varsity replacing Guv passed in Council by one vote
Belagavi (Karnataka), Dec 18: The bill that proposes to replace the Karnataka Governor as chancellor of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) University with the Chief Minister, was passed in the Karnataka Legislative Council on Wednesday, by one vote.
Having passed by both houses of the legislature, the bill will now have to go before the Governor for his assent to become a law.
Leader of Opposition in the council, Chalavadi Narayanaswamy opposed the bill and demanded for a division of votes during the voting on the bill. Hence, Council Chairman Basavaraj Horatti arranged for row wise headcount of members both in favour of and against the bill.
The division of votes showed 26 votes in favor of the bill, and 25 against it.
The Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University (Amendment) Bill, 2024 passed by the Assembly on Tuesday, seeks to amend the 2016 Act to make provisions for the Chief Minister to be the Chancellor, and for appointment of the vice chancellor by the chancellor from the panel of three persons suggested by search committee.
The Opposition BJP-JD(S) legislators walked out of the Assembly on Tuesday after clashing with the Congress, during the passage of the Bill.
Several opposition members questioned the intention of the government in replacing the Governor as the Chancellor of the university and insisted that the field of education should not be politicised.
JD(S) MLC T A Sharavana said the move seems to be out of hate towards the Governor, and suggested that there should always be a cordial relationship between the government and the Raj Bhavan.
"What the government is going to achieve by keeping the Governor away. CM is always busy politically and administratively. Can he give enough time towards the affairs of the University?" he asked.
BJP MLC C T Ravi questioned whether the Governor was not "cooperative" towards the University's functioning? "What is the intention behind bringing this amendment that was not there when the actual bill was brought a few years ago? Why is the constitutional authority being removed from the Chancellor's post?"
Congress MLC Ivan D'Souza, while defending the bill, said, "In what way the Governor can help the university? If the CM is the chancellor, he can organise funds for the development of the university. Nowhere law stipulates that only the Governor should be the chancellor. States like Gujarat have withdrawn the Governor from Chancellorship of various universities in their state."
Replying to the discussion, RDPR Minister Priyank Kharge said, the bill was not brought with any political malintention or out of any political hatred or to have any confrontation with the Governor.
The bill has been brought in to make the university function more efficiently, to make it coordinate with the government better and, to provide better quality of education and training for youths, he added.
"I have nowhere said that the Governor was not cooperating. As we felt that this is one of the better ways to manage the university, we have brought these amendments. Show me any guidelines including the UGC guidelines which says that only the Governor should be the Chancellor. No such guideline anywhere," Kharge said, pointing out that in various states like Gujarat and Arunachal Pradesh, the Governor has no role in several Universities.
