GSI becomes nodal agency for collection & preservation of meteorites in India

Kolkata: The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has now been declared the Nodal Agency for collection, preservation, registration and dissemination of all Meteorite falls or finds within the country.

"We are proud as GSI has become the sole custodian and curator of all meteorites," said Dr Dinesh Gupta, director general of GSI. All the meteorite falls or finds within the Indian Territory are to be registered in the National Meteorite Repository (NMR) of India at GSI Kolkata, immediately after its collection. The declaration has been made by a recent notification issued by the Ministry of Mines, Government of India.

The collection and systematic cataloguing of meteorites has been in practice in GSI since 1865, when the entire meteorite collection of Professor Robert Philip Greg was purchased by the then Union government.

The collection now adds up to nearly 700 meteorite samples, including ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites, achondrites, iron meteorites and stony iron meteorites.

Apart from meteorite samples, a few impactites (basaltic melt glass, tektite etc.) and melt breccia from Lonar Crater, Maharashtra and Dhala (Mohar) Crater, Madhya Pradesh, are also curated at GSI Kolkata.

These precious extraterrestrial samples are displayed at the National Meteorite Repository at the Meteorite and Planetary Science Division of the GSI office on Kyd Street.

Geoscientists of GSI are actively involved in research activities on meteorite, with many renowned institutions like Physical Research Laboratory (PRL) Ahmedabad, Indian Institute of Science (IISc) Bangalore, Atomic Minerals Directorate for Exploration and Research (AMDER) New Delhi, etc.

"Meteorites are of significant importance and often hold clues to formation and evolution of stars, provide age and composition of the Solar System and its evolution and often hints at the formation of life," said Dr Gupta.

GSI is coming up with a state-of-the-art laboratory in the Meteorite and Planetary Science Division in Kolkata.