Centenary of the Geological Survey of India 1851-1951. A Short History of the First Hundred Years

This change has been due in the main to two causes : the progressive opening up of the country with the extension of roads and the introduction of railways and telegraphs; and the vast strides made in the knowledge of tropical diseases particularly of the cause and treatment of malarial fever. [...] Early Surveys During the coal survey which included the portions of the Satpura range to the south of the Narbada valley such as the Pachmarhi hills J. G. Medlicott recognised the principal sub-divisions of the coal-bearing series to which in his memoir 'On the Geological Structure of the Central portion of the Narbada District' published in 186o he applies the names Talcheer proposed by th [...] The two Blanfords with the aid of Theobald surveyed the Talchir coalfield in Orissa during the field season of 1855-56 the results being recorded in a paper 'On the Geolgical Structure and Relations of the Talcheer Coalfield in the District of Cuttack'. [...] Their discovery of two lava flows (correlated with the Deccan trap flows) between the Cardita beaumonti horizon and the Ranikot beds and a third one interstratified in the sandstone underlying the Cardita beaumonti beds threw light on the time period of the lava flows in this region which has a bearing on the question of the age of the flows—a subject of much controversy lately The Madras Party T [...] The collection was then moved to Hastings Street and the Geological Museum was opened to the public on 1st January 1857.* These changes were a part of the re-organisation of the Geological Survey of 1856 for which Oldham was responsible and from 1856 Oldham used the dual title of Superintendent of the Geological Survey of India and of the Museum of Geology Calcutta a designation which was altere