Bhopal: The residents in a Madhya Pradesh village were worshipping the stone balls they found as “Kuldevtas”, only to find years later that those were fossilized dinosaur eggs.
As per a belief that the “Kuldevtas” would safeguard their farmland and livestock from difficulties and misfortunes, the villagers in Dhar’s Padalya had been worshipping the stones they found while farming as “Kakad Bhairav” or Bhilat Baba.
“We used to offer coconuts to Bhilat Baba and performed the puja. Villagers also used to offer goats during rain,” Vesta Mandaloi, a resident of the Padlya village, said.
However, when a team of experts visited the village, it found that the stones were million-year-old dinosaur eggs.
“We have a dinosaur park that was built in 2011. Many times people in the villages around there find such fossils and start worshipping them,” Divisional Forest Officer (DFO) AS Solanki said.
A centre of fossils collection and conservation is in the Baag area of the Dhar district.
Known as the Dinosaur Fossil National Park, it stores various old-era fossils.
Over 250 such dinosaur eggs have so far been found in the district.
It is believed that there were a good number of dinosaurs in the Narmada Valley of Madhya Pradesh.
Scientists estimate that dinosaurs roamed Earth about 175 million years ago. Thousands of these species then became extinct around 65 million years ago.
