Prehistoric cave paintings dating back nearly a lakh years have been discovered in Faridabad.

Archaeologists have uncovered cave paintings in a hilly and forested part of Haryana, not far from the national capital, that they believe date from the Upper Palaeolithic epoch, making them one of the country's oldest cave arts.

“The chronology of ancient settlement at the site could range from about 1,00,000 to about 15,000 years ago, based on tool topology. But we've also discovered signs of later settlement, dating back to the 8th and 9th centuries AD,” said Banani Bhattacharyya, Deputy Director of the Haryana Archaeology and Museums Department.

The caverns are located in the Aravalli mountain ranges, just outside of the national capital, among a maze of quartzite rocks and a stone's throw from the region's last surviving piece of primary forest, a holy grove known as Mangar Bani.

While people of Manger village and neighboring villages such as Selakhari claim that the murals have been known for centuries, the Haryana government's museum and archaeology department only recently became aware of them. In the last week of June, it dispatched a fact-finding team to the area.

Sunil Harsana, an environmental activist, discovered a prehistoric cave painting in the Mangar Bani hill forest in May of this year. In June of this year, the Haryana archaeology department conducted explorations in the Shilakhari, Mangar, Kot, and Dhauj areas of Faridabad, as well as Roj ka Gujjar and Damdama in Gurgaon.

Harsana has been photographing many parts of the Aravallis recently, from wildlife to plants, and has decided to do the same with cave art. During the lockdown, he photographed the sketches and later shared them on social media. It was these photos that caught archaeologists' attention.