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Geological Survey of India

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Not to be confused with Survey of India.

Geological Survey of India
भारतीय भूवैज्ञानिक सर्वेक्षण

Central Headquarters. 27 JN Road, Kolkata.
Government agency overview
Formed4 March 1851; 173 years ago (4 March 1851)
TypeGeological survey
JurisdictionGovernment of India
HeadquartersKolkata, West Bengal, India
Annual budget₹800 crore (US$96 million) (2019–20)[1]
Government agency executive
  • Shri Asit Saha
Parent Government agencyMinistry of Mines
Websitegsi.gov.in/

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) is a scientific agency of India. It was founded in 1851, as a Government of India organization under the Ministry of Mines, one of the oldest of such organisations in the world and the second oldest survey in India after the Survey of India (founded in 1767), for conducting geological surveys and studies of India, and also as the prime provider of basic earth science information to government, industry and general public, as well as the official participant in steel, coal, metals, cement, power industries and international geoscientific forums.

History

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The GSI in 1870. Standing: Ferdinand Stoliczka, Robert Bruce Foote, William Theobald, F. R. Mallet, Valentine Ball, Wilhelm Heinrich Waagen, W. L. Willson; Sitting: A. Tween, W. King, Thomas Oldham, Henry Benedict Medlicott, C. A. Hackett.

Formed in 1851 by East India Company, the organization's roots can be traced to 1836 when the "Coal Committee", followed by more such committees, was formed to study and explore the availability of coal in the eastern parts of India.[2][3] David Hiram Williams, one of the first surveyors for the British Geological Survey, was appointed 'Surveyor of coal districts and superintendent of coal works, Bengal' on 3 December 1845 and arrived in India the following February.[2][3] The phrase "Geological Survey of India" was first used on his Dec 1847 map of the Damoodah and Adji Great Coal Field,[4] together with Horizontal[5][6] and Vertical sections of the map.[7] On 4 February 1848, he was appointed the "Geological Surveyor of the Geological Survey of India", but he fell off his elephant and, soon after, died with his assistant, F. B. Jones, of 'jungle fever' on 15 November 1848,[8] after which John McClelland took over as the "Officiating Surveyor" until his retirement on 5 March 1851.[2][3]

Until 1852, Geological Survey primarily remained focused on exploration for coal, mainly for powering steam transport, oil reserves, and ore deposits, when Sir Thomas Oldham, father of Richard Dixon Oldham, broadened the ambit of the scope of functioning of the Geological Survey of India by advancing the argument with the government that it was not possible to find coal without first mapping the geology of India. Thus, the Geological Survey commenced to map the rock types, geological structures and relative ages of different rock types . The age of rock strata was estimated from the presence of index fossils, which consumed much of the geologists' efforts in finding these index fossils, as the method of Radiometric dating for estimating the age of rock strata was not developed at that time.[2][3] In 1869 Frederick Richard Mallet was first to visit Ramgarh crater.[9][10] Later studies include by those of Arthur Lennox Coulson

In 19th century GSI undertook several surveys including Great Trigonometrical Survey, 1869 Kailash-Mansarovar expedition, 1871-1872 Shigache–Lhasa expedition, 1873-1874 Yarkand–Kashgar expedition, second expedition of this area by Sir Thomas Douglas Forsyth, 1878-1882 Darjeeling–Lhasa–Mongolia expedition, etc.[11][12][13][14] The native surveyors were called pandit, some notable ones include cousins Nain Singh Rawat and Krishna Singh Rawat.[15][13][14]

In 19th and early 20th century GSI made important contributions to Seismology by its studies and detailed reports on numerous Indian earthquakes. Richard Dixon Oldham, like his father also worked for GSI, first correctly identified p- and s-waves, and hypothesised and calculated the diameter of the Earth's core.[2][3]

On 8 April 2017 GSI began pilot project, with the first ever aerial survey of mineral stocks by GSI, to map the mineral stocks up to a depth of 20 km using specially-equipped aircraft.[16]

The GSI was restructured into 5 Missions, respectively relating to "Baseline Surveys";"Mineral resource Assessments";"Geoinformatics";"Multi-disciplinary Geosciences"; and "Training and Capacity Building", on the basis of the Report of a High-level Committee chaired by Mr S.Vijay Kumar[17] Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Mines of the Government of India.

The superintendents and directors

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Sr. No. Name Period Country
1. Dr. Thomas Oldham, The Superintendent 1851–1876 Dublin, Republic of Ireland
2. H. B. Medlicott, The Superintendent 1876–1885 Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland
3. H. B. Medlicott, The Director 1885–1887 Loughrea, County Galway, Ireland
4. William King Jr. 1887–1894 Ireland; an Anglo-Irish
5. C.L.Griesbach 1894–1903 Vienna, Austria
6. Sir T. H. Holland 1903–1910 Helston, Cornwall, England
7. Sir Henry. H. Hayden 1910–1921 Derry, Ireland
8. Sir Edwin Hall Pascoe 1921–1932 England
9. Sir L.L. Fermor 1932–1935 Peckham, south London, England
10. Dr. A. M. Heron 1935–1939 British, Duddingston, Edinburgh, Scotland
11. Sir Cyril S. Fox 1939–1943 -
12. Edward Leslie Gilbert Clegg 1943–1944 Manchester, England
13. Henry Crookshank 1944–1945 -
14. J.A. Dunn 1945 -
15. William Dixon West 1945–1951 Bournemouth, England
16. M. S. Krishnan, First Indian Director 1951–1955 Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu
17. V. P. Sondhi 1955–1958 -
18. B. C. Roy 1958–1964 -

See also

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References

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  1. ^ "Finance". Gsi.gov.in. Retrieved 12 August 2022.
  2. ^ a b c d e Kumar, Deepak (1982). "Economic Compulsions and the Geological Survey of India". Indian Journal of History of Science. 17 (2): 289–300.
  3. ^ a b c d e Chakrabarty, S (2012). "Geological Survey of India". In Islam, Sirajul; Jamal, Ahmed A. (eds.). Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Second ed.). Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. Archived from the original on 8 December 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  4. ^ Damoodah and Adji Great Coal Field Map Archived 6 April 2018 at the Wayback Machine, Bavarian State Library.
  5. ^ GSI Map of horizontal sections 1 & 2 Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Bavarian State Library.
  6. ^ GSI Map of horizontal sections 3 & 4 Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Bavarian State Library.
  7. ^ GSI Map of vertical section 5 Archived 1 December 2017 at the Wayback Machine, Bavarian State Library.
  8. ^ Allen's Indian Mail, Vol VII, No 117 London, 22 January 1849, p41.
  9. ^ Mallet, F. R., 1869, Memoir, Geological Survey of India, vol 7, page 129.
  10. ^ BALASUNDARAM, M., DUBE, A. Ramgarh, 1973, "Structure, India", Nature (journal), 242, 40 doi:10.1038/242040a0.
  11. ^ Clements R. Markham, 1878, "A Memoir on The Indian Surveys", 2nd Ed., W H Allen & Co., London, p.189.
  12. ^ Charles E. D. Black, 1891, "A Memoir on The Indian Surveys (1875-90)" , London , p.168.
  13. ^ a b Derek J. Waller, 2004, "The Pundits: British Exploration of Tibet and Central Asia," University Press of Kentucky.
  14. ^ a b Account of the Pundit's Journey in Great Tibet - Capt. H. Trotter, The Journal of the Royal Geographical Society (1877).
  15. ^ Peter Hopkirk, 1982, "Trespassers on the Roof of the World: The Race for Lhasa", Oxford University Press.
  16. ^ "In a first in India, GSI to use modern aircraft to map mineral stocks". The Financial Express. 7 April 2017. Archived from the original on 7 April 2017. Retrieved 6 April 2017.
  17. ^ "TERI: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development - India". Archived from the original on 5 October 2018. Retrieved 27 December 2017.
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