In 2001, Murli Manohar Joshi, the Minister of Human Resource development announced that there have been discovered the ruins of an ancient civilization off the coasts of Gujarat that predate the Indus Valley Civilization. Further descriptions of the site by Joshi describe it as containing regularly spaced dwellings, a granary, a bath, a citadel, and a drainage system.
The National Institute of Ocean Technology was conducting pollution tests and their sonar stumbled upon some regular geometric structures.
A follow-up investigation was conducted by NIOT in 2001 and then again in 2002-03. Artifacts discovered were a piece of wood, pottery sherds and weathered stones claimed to be tools. Artifacts were recovered by means of dredging, including pottery sherds, microliths, wattle and daub remains, and hearth materials.
A few of the artefacts retrieved from the Gulf of Khambat: 1. A piece of wood; 2. A jaw-bone and a tooth; and 3. Semi-precious stones :
"The finds comprise a piece of wood measuring approximately 25 cm in length and 20 cm in diameter, an assortment of pottery sherds, stone pieces presumed to be tools, fossilised bones, and a tooth. Sonar images showed what appeared to be a vast area of regular structures on the sea-bed and a submerged river-bed. No archaeologist, nor diver, has seen the underwater site. No underwater photographs were taken. The artefacts were recovered by a mechanical dredge that trawled large sections of the sea-bed. The decision to dredge the sea-bed was made by the Department of Ocean Development."
The piece of wood was dated at two different labs, the NGRI in Hyderabad returned a date of 7190 BC and the BSIP in Hannover returned a date of 7545-7490 BC. But a single piece of wood does not imply presence of an advanced civilization.
Dr. D.P. Agrawal, chairman of the Paleoclimate Group who is responsible for establishing Carbon-14 laboratories in India states:
"To date a city on the basis of a dredged sample of wood is irresponsible and ridiculous. I have worked with the Paleoclimate Group on the changes in climate over the ages. It is a known fact that during the Ice Age, about 20,000 years ago, the Arabian Sea was 100 metres lower (than its present level). Entire forests are buried beneath the sea in this area. It is not extraordinary to find a piece of wood going back to 7500 B.C. or 5000 B.C. There is no way it can be used as evidence to date this so-called city."
Prof K.V.Raman :
"Most of what I could see were not man-made, they were naturally rolled pebbles. They deceptively look like tools but are not."
The 'excavation' has been accused of not following the standard archaeological procedures. But the findings cannot be altogether ignored. There is absolutely something around there, but it has been taken too enthusiastically. Furthermore, it won't be right to be certain that this was exactly the Dwarka city mentioned in the Mahabharata.