Birla Science Centre Gets Singareni Pavillion With Stegodon Tusks, Toba Ash

Hyderabad:Miners at Singareni Collieries Company Limited (SCCL) were digging for coal when they came across a strange find: what looked like bone fragments. Upon detailed examination, it was determined that they were tooth fragments of a stegodon, an elephant-like mammal that could reach 12 feet in length and walked in the region until 6 thousand years ago.

The teeth, found in the Medapalli open-pit mine in Ramagundam, were meticulously restored and are now on display at the Birla Science Center at Singareni Pavilion. It also contains ash from the eruption of the Toba volcano in Singari, Indonesia, which occurred about 75,000 years ago. The gallery also features petrified woods and is located next to the Dinosaur Pavilion, where previously found fossils were found in the Adilabad district.

Stegodon fossils are found in only four places worldwide, including the Narmada valley. While a pair of teeth was recently donated to the Birla Museum, another set was earlier given to the Nehru Zoological Park by Singareni. Each tooth imaged is approximately seven feet long.

Stegodons belong to a genus thought to have existed from 11 million years ago to 6,000 years ago. Elephant-like mammals had long, curved tusks that could reach 10 to 12 feet. In some species, teeth grew so close together that their bodies had to be held sideways.

Nirmala Birla, president of GP Birla Institute of Archaeology, Astronomy and Scientific Research, was present when N. Balram, president and managing director of SCCL, inaugurated the gallery. Balram lauded the centre’s efforts in promoting scientific thought and dissemination of knowledge and thanked partner organizations such as Isro, Geological Survey of India and Atomic Energy Commission.

Nirmala Birla noted the educational value of the new exhibits and their ability to connect visitors to the ancient past.

The director of the institute, Dr. K. Mruthyunjaya Reddy said that he visited the area with a team of experts and collected samples regarding Toba ash. “About 75,000 years ago, Mount Toba erupted in Sumatra, Indonesia, spewing approximately 2,800 cubic kilometers of ash and lava into the atmosphere. The material spread across the Indian subcontinent and formed deposits 1-3 meters thick,” he said. The deposits are found in several minor river beds, including the Haridra river, a tributary of the Manjeera, at Hastalpur in Narsapur mandal in Medak district; Jurreru river near Jwalapuram and Banaganapalle village in Nandyal district; and Murreru river, a tributary of the Godavari, at Sampathnagar in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district. Similar deposits have been found in the Gundlakamma, Vamsadhara and Nagavalli rivers.

“Due to its glass cullet content, ash is often used as a scrubbing material, and local women also use it as a natural dishwashing agent,” he said.