New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- A new study has established a connection between the formation of Antarctica around 34 million years ago and the early evolution of the Indian monsoon system that allowed lush forests to flourish across the subcontinent, Ministry of Science & Technology said.

The discovery of well-preserved fossil leaves from the Laisong Formation in Nagaland, dating back about 34 million years, suggested that the region once had a warm and wet climate.

This led scientists from led by researchers from the Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences (Lucknow) and Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (Dehradun), both autonomous institutes of the Department of Science and Technology (DST) to carry out a detailed climate reconstruction a...