The Ministry of Culture in its latest submission at the Parliament revealed that as many as 50 centrally protected monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) are untraceable or missing.
The submission was made on December 8 to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture as part of a report titled ‘Issues relating to Untraceable Monuments and Protection of Monuments in India’.
“It is a matter of grave concern that several monuments of national importance under the protection of Archaeological Survey of India (Ministry of Culture) have become untraceable over the years due to rapid urbanisation, (being) submerged by reservoirs (and) dams, difficulties in tracing in remote locations (and) dense forests, non-availability of their proper location, etc.,” said the submission.
According to the submission, 11 monuments are missing from the state of Uttar Pradesh, two from Delhi and Haryana, Maharashtra and Rajasthan each and one from Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Uttarakhand and Madhya Pradesh each.
These monuments have either been lost in urbanisation or submerged by reservoirs and dams while others are untraceable, said the submission.
“Many such cases pertain to inscriptions and tablets, which don’t have a fixed address. They could have been moved or damaged, and it may be difficult to locate them,” an official was quoted by the Sunday Express over the damage caused.
The officer said that the heritage has always been ignored, no matter who was at the Centre. “Even now, they are grappling with an acute manpower shortage to physically man all the big and small monuments which may fall under a particular region,” the official said.
The Parliamentary Committee noted that “out of the 92 monuments declared as missing by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), 42 have been identified due to efforts made by the ASI”, but from the remaining list of 50 monuments.
The CAG audit included a joint physical inspection, along with ASI, of just 1,655 monuments and sites out of the 3,678 centrally protected monuments nationwide. The 24 monuments reported to be untraceable are from this sample of 1,655 monuments, said the official.
