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Salkhan Fossils Park in Sonbhadra district, Uttar Pradesh, has been added to UNESCO's Tentative List of World Heritage Sites.
The park holds stromatolite and algae fossils dated to around 1.4 billion years, making it one of the oldest fossil sites in the world.
Inclusion in the Tentative List is the first formal step in the World Heritage nomination process.
A detailed dossier is being finalised by the state and will be sent to UNESCO through the Government of India.
UNESCO's final decision follows on-site inspection and evaluation, a process that usually takes about a year.
Stromatolites are layered sedimentary structures formed by mats of cyanobacteria, which trap sediment and precipitate minerals as they grow. Because cyanobacteria were among the earliest photosynthesising organisms on Earth, stromatolites are treated as some of the oldest direct evidence of life and of the oxygenation of the early atmosphere.
Simple Analogy: Think of them as rock made of stacked bacterial mats, like a page-by-page diary of the earliest life on the planet.
Administers the World Heritage Convention and inscribes World Heritage Sites
GS Paper 1 > Geography and Indian Heritage; GS Paper 3 > Conservation
General Awareness > Static GK and Current Affairs
A country's inventory of sites it intends to nominate for World Heritage status; a prerequisite for nomination.
Photosynthesising bacteria responsible for forming stromatolites and for early atmospheric oxygen.