Context: Recently, geologists have suggested to protect the site of Coastal Red Sand Dunes, of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh.

About The Site

• The Coastal Red Sand Dunes is also known as ‘Erra Matti Dibbalu’. It is one of the many sites of Visakhapatnam, which have geological importance.

• The site is located along the coast and is about 20 km north-east of Visakhapatnam city and about 4 km south-west of Bheemunipatnam.

• This site was declared as a geo-heritage site by the Geological Survey of India (GSI) in 2014 and the Andhra Pradesh government has listed it under the category of ‘protected sites’ in 2016.

• Distribution: Such red sand deposits are rare and have been reported only from three places in the tropical regions in South Asia such as Teri Sands in Tamil Nadu, Erra Matti Dibbalu in Visakhapatnam and one more site in Sri Lanka.

Key Features

• The uniqueness of this site is that the red sediments are a part of the continuation of the evolution of the earth and represent the late quaternary geologic age.

• With a height of up to 30 m, they exhibit badland topography with different geomorphic landforms and features, including gullies, sand dunes, buried channels, beach ridges, paired terraces, the valley in the valley, wave-cut terrace, knick point and waterfalls.

Key significance of this site

• Firstly, this site is about 18,500 to 20,000 years old and it can be related to the last glacial period. Hence, studying this site can help understand the impact of climate change as this site has seen both the glacial and the warm periods.

• Secondly, this site has archaeological significance, as studies of artifacts indicate an Upper Palaeolithic horizon and on cross dating assigned to Late Pleistocene epoch, which is 20,000 BC.

• The site was also home to the pre-historic man as the excavations at several places in the region revealed stone implements of three distinctive periods and also the pottery of the Neolithic man.