Vadodara/ Anand: When did hominins and the first Homo sapiens groups enter the Indian subcontinent? Geologist Dr Prabhin Sukumaran, will work to reconstruct and understand the history of earth around the last 2.6 million years to find an answer to this question and many more.
The researcher from Charotar University of Science and Technology (CHARUSAT) has bagged prestigious 6-month Fulbright-Nehru Academic and Professional Excellence Fellowship to carry out a research project that will throw some light on this period called the quaternary period in geological time.
Questions like did they enter the subcontinent through an inland route or through a coastal route, or did they encounter and coexist with different species of archaic humans in the subcontinent will be studied in his visit to the Stable Isotope Geochemistry Laboratory of University of Illinois. There, Sukumaran will carry out reconstruction of the paleoclimate of Central Tapi River Basin, Maharashtra to understand human evolution through the last two million years.
“A large number of studies from the Indian subcontinent have witnessed significant progress in archaeological and quaternary geological understanding. However, when the results are compiled to understand some of the primary questions about human evolution and culture change in India and when we try to connect it on a global map, there’s a marked lack of common tie between these results,” he said.
“It requires coordination and cooperation between multi-disciplinary researchers including geologists, archaeologists and anthropologists,” said the researcher, adding that the project will help understand the environmental factors for the gradual technological, biological, cultural and behavioural changes that occurred throughout the quaternary period in India.
Sukumaran has been recently appointed as secretary of the national working group of human climate interaction of the Association of Quaternary Researchers, the national body of Indian quaternary scientists.
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