The Narmada river is among the most ancient rivers on the earth. Fossils of crores of years-old Vanaspati and living beings have been found in Narmada Ghati. During these crores of years, different forms of bio-diversity have appeared and then disappeared from time to time.
Nearly six crore years ago, the Vanaspati between the ponds and reservoirs were hidden underneath ash created from the hot lava melted on the Earth’s surface following earthquakes and geological changes. Barks of trees, fruits, flowers, seeds, creepers, leaves etc. turned hard and transformed into fossils.
Along with the fossils of elephants, horses, sea horses, wild buffaloes etc. skullcaps of ancient humans have also been found in Hathnoura village in Sehore district in the Narmada ghati. The human skull found during excavation in the banks of Narmada in Hathnoura has been named ‘Narmada Kapal’ and scientists have named this ancient human as Narmada Manav. Fossils of both teeth and upper jaw of ancient and extinct elephant ‘Stegodon’ have been found on the northern bank of Narmada at Dhansi village near Hathnoura. Fossils of ancient animals have been found near the confluence of Narmada and Sher river near Narsinghpur.
Fossils of the upper jaw of Rajasaurus dinosaur and a bony plate from the back of the gigantic dinosaur Stegosaurus have been found on the banks of the river near Jabalpur. Two huge femur bones and 104 eggs of the nearly 8 crore years –old Sauropods were found near Kukshi in Dhar district. Scientists believe that the shape of Sauropods are about 40 to 90 feet. Fossils of oceanic, clean water and ground vanaspati, shells, insects to enormous dinosaurs dating back to 1.7 million years to a few thousand years ago have been found in the Narmada ghati. Over 5000 teeth fossils of sharks have also been found.
The Narmada Yatra today reached Pathpar Singarpur from linga Poudi after morning aarti where local people’s representatives performed pujan of kalash and Narmada dhwaj. Sadhvi Pragya Bharti made people aware of the importance of cleanliness, water conservation and water promotion. They were administered resolve for Narmada conservation, de-addiction, environment conservation, female foeticide, Beti-Bachao, organic farming etc.