Regional Museum, Saketi

The Siwalik Fossil Park, inaugurated on 23rd March 1974, is a rare gift of nature and a rich geological heritage. The Park displays six life size, fibre glass models of prehistoric animals which thrived in the area 1- 2.5 million years ago. The fossilized remains of these animals have been recovered from the rocks around Saketi and neighbouring areas. Many spectacular fossil specimens of this collection have been exhibited in a museum in the Park. These are Colossochelys atlas (an extinct giant land tortoise),Gavialis browni (an extinct gharial), Sivatherium giganteum (an extinct four-horned giraffe), Paramachoerodus sp. (sabre-toothed tiger), Stegodon ganesa ( an extinct large-tusked elephant) and Hexaprotodon sivalensis (extinct hippopotamid). The invaluable exhibits include skulls, jaws, teeth, tusks, horn cores, limb bones, vertebrae, etc of fish, crocodiles, land tortoises, elephants, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, giraffes, camels, suids, horses, bovids, rodents, primates etc.

The museum is periodically enriched with fresh collections of vertebrate fossils and related enthusiasts interested in knowing mode of fossil occurrence in nature. The site has been developed geological data. Numerous fossil sites exist in and around the park for examination by scientists and to give a panorama of Plio-Pleistocene period (2.5 million years ago) through massive afforestation.