Exploring India's Jurrassic Park with Princess Aaliya Sultana Babi

28th and 29th March 2025, Bhopal

Dinosaurs have been ruling our childhood fantacies for decades now. Almost everyone remembers the spin-chilling experiences of watching these giants in the movie series 'Jurassic Park'. And if we ask you about your favorite dinosaur, the most probable answer would be the iconic- 'T-Rex'. That's because our knowledge and understand of these giant creatures comes from these movies. We have been made to think that dinosaurs were natives of Hollywood, or America. We might even wonder- what if they would have been roaming in our country! Well, we are here to tell you that- Yes, we had our own dinosaurs in India back then!! There were numerous species that use to roam around the central Indian landmass around 6.5 crores years ago. That's a very long span of time to ponder about. But, how do we know that there were Indian dinosaurs present at that time? And was thier extinction caused by the same asteroid that thrashed in to the gulf of Mexico and created the Chicxulub Crater? Join us as we explore the story of Indian Dinosaurs, thier amazing names, their eggs and bones, the places they lived and the cause of thier extinction.

We had a golden opportunity of hosting Princess Aaliya Sultana Babi, the custodian of the 3rd largest (hatchery) nesting site near Balasinor, Gujarat. Aaliya Sultana Babi is a well-known name in the paleantology circuit of India. She has been activerly engaged in the discovery, preservation and research of the dinosaur fossils. She recenty compeleted 30 years as an amaeture parlentoligist and science communicator. Around 10,000 of dinosaur eggs and bones have been discovered in the form of fossils. Many of these eggs have fascinating stories around thier discovery.

Princess Aaliya Sultana Babi was our guest speaker for Vigyan Parv, organised by Rabindranath Tagore University, Bhopal, on 28th-29th April 2025. She received appreciation and a grand ovation from the students who learned something new from her presentation. As a bonus, the students were provided a chance to touch the rare specimen of eggs and bones.

As a committed science communcating unit, Astrophiles India will keep bringing you the stories and events that would leave you inspired and responsible for humanity and other creatures. If you want to want to know more about the events we organise, or want to book a show with us, simply click here or write to us as astrophilesindia@gmail.com.