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India's largest natural arch found in Odisha

Published on 20 Jun 2023

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India's largest natural arch found in Odisha
  • A team of the Geological Survey of India recently discovered India’s biggest natural arch during their survey of coal in Kenduadihi block in Odisha’s Sundargarh district.
  • The state unit of the Geological Survey of India (GSI) has proposed to declare the ‘Natural Arch’ in the Kanika range of Sundargarh forest division, a Geo Heritage Site.
  • If it is done, it will be the biggest natural arch of the country to have the Geo Heritage tag.
  • Apart from the arch at Sundargarh, India has two others- one at Tirumala hills in Tirupati and another at Andaman and Nicobar. 
  • However, both of them are smaller compared to the one in Sundargarh.
  • The Sundargarh natural arch, present in the ferruginous sandstone of the Upper Kamthi formation, dates back to about 184 to 160 million years in the lower to middle Jurassic age.
  • Geoheritage sites are sites of rare and unique geological, geo-morphological, mineralogical, petrological, and paleontological significance, including caves and natural rock sculptures of national and international interest.
Source: SarkariPariksha