GSI lists geo-tourism spots in the Northeast to explore post-pandemic

The Northeastern states offer more than just scenic beauty and wildlife to tourists. The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has identified at least 12 tourist attraction sites but with a tinge of geology added to it.

"Once the pandemic situation is controlled, people are likely to travel to places, which are different from the normal tourist destination. These sites, apart from their natural beauties surely offer something different as they have evidence of major geological happenings or climatic conditions," an official of GSI told DH.

The GSI listed Mawmluh Cave near Cherapunjee in the East Khasi Hill districts of Meghalaya.

"A recent study has indicated that about 4,200 years ago, there was a major climatic event wherein the world experienced a very abrupt, critical and significant drought and cooling. Therefore, it coincided with a global climatic event and this marked the beginning of the Meghalayan Age. Speleothems from the cave provide important records of Holocene palaeo-climate and palaeo-monsoon," the GSI said.

"Mawblei or the God’s Rock is a huge slanting boulder, resting at an angle of about 45 degrees towards SSE direction overlooking the Wahrashi River valley in East Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya.

"The boulder is composed of the reddish-purple gritty Mahadek sandstone belonging to the Khasi Group of Cretaceous age. This rock can be termed as a perched block, which might have been produced by a rock fall or a landslide."

The GSI listed K-T Boundary mass extinction, Therriaghat river section in Meghalaya's East Khasi Hills which is probably one of the best-preserved and most complete Cretaceous-Palaeogene K-T Boundary section in India, Naga Hill Ophiolite in Kiphire district of Nagaland, Majuli river island and Umananda island in Assam, Stromatolite Park on Carbonite comprising stromatolitic (algal) structure in Sikkim, the rock carving on steep mountain wall on the bank of Gomati river Tripura.

It also named Reiek Cuesta, a beautiful cuesta formed due to erosion of the Tertiary sand shale alternations near Aizawl in Mizoram, Shonga-tser Lake or popularly known as Madhuri Lake in Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and the Loktak lake of Manipur, which is famous for the phumdis floating on it.