Atikh Rashid & Dipanita Nath
What did Pune look like when hippopotami roamed its river valleys? The answer lies in a prehistoric landscape of grasslands, water bodies and abundant wildlife, very different from the city we know today. Fossils unearthed across the region reveal a time when hippos shared the land with elephants, wild cattle, deer and other animals.
When Heritage India began working on the book Punyakatha: Pune’s Story of a Million Years, one of the first chapters was about “The Four-Footed Inhabitants of Yore”. Ostriches and an extinct species of pig are among the rare and precious members of Pune district’s prehistoric animal community.
The district was once home to elephants, wild cattle, buffaloes, nilgai, swamp deer, spotted deer, crocodiles, tortoises and hippopotami. Savannah grasslands interspersed with patches of bushes along river channels supported this diverse fauna.
Manjiri Khandekar, author of Punyakatha, said she was amazed to learn that hippos once inhabited Pune. Despite having lived in the city for much of her life, she discovered this fact only when she was nearly 55. This revelation inspired the book to begin Pune’s history with its prehistoric environment.
According to the book, the last traces of hippos in India were found in the Ghod Valley near Inamgaon in Pune district around 19,000 years ago. Their disappearance has been attributed to the loss of suitable habitats, including water bodies and rivers.
Search for ancient bones
In 1832, Scottish surgeon and palaeontologist Hugh Falconer (1808–1865) was appointed director of the Saharanpur Botanical Garden in Uttar Pradesh. An acquaintance shared an English translation of the Tarikh-i-Firishta, a 17th-century Persian account of medieval Indian rulers. Falconer noticed descriptions of enormous bones unearthed during construction projects in the medieval period.
Intrigued by these accounts, Falconer and engineer Proby Thomas Cautley excavated the Siwalik Hills region, now in Himachal Pradesh. They discovered fossils of giant elephants, hippos, giraffes, apes and land tortoises.
Dr Vijay Sathe, vertebrate palaeontologist and former professor at Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, said Falconer recognised that the enormous bones described in Firishta’s account were likely fossilised remains of ancient animals. Their findings were published in Asiatic Research in 1836, marking a significant milestone in Indian palaeontological research.
The last hippo traces near Pune
Within two to three years of the publication, Falconer excavated more hippo fossils at Bhedaghat in the Narmada Valley, which became internationally renowned for its fossil discoveries.
Palaeontologists also recorded hippo fossils in the Godavari basin near Paithan in Maharashtra. Deccan College researchers discovered fossils of hippos and other large animals in the Painganga river basin near Hingoli.
Sathe said the last traces of hippos in India were found in sandy deposits along the banks of the Ghodnadi, about 75 km from Pune. Shell fossils discovered at the site were dated using carbon-14 analysis to approximately 19,500 years ago. Evidence also suggests that hippos flourished in parts of Marathwada until around 21,500 years ago.
Why did hippos become extinct in India?
Hippos, which lived in India until the end of the Pleistocene epoch, may have disappeared because of climate change, dwindling water sources and the loss of vegetation. Scientists believe that climatic changes associated with the last glacial period contributed to their extinction.
Their disappearance from India long ago may also explain why hippos are absent from ancient Indian sculptures, cave art, architecture, folk art and folklore
