50 of India's 3,693 centrally protected monuments ‘missing,' claims Government

Archaeological Survey of India: According to a statement submitted in Parliament by the Ministry of Culture, up to 50 of India's 3,693 centrally protected monuments are missing.

“…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,” according to submissions made by the ministry 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 Monument Protection in India'. According to the report, the Committee heard the views of Culture Secretary Govind Mohan, ASI Director-General V Vidyavathi, and other top officials from the agency on May 18, 2022.

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About missing monuments

There are 11 missing monuments in Uttar Pradesh, as well as two each in Delhi and Haryana. Monuments in Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand were also placed on the list.

According to the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), 14 of these monuments have vanished due to growing urbanisation, 12 have been flooded by reservoirs or dams, and the whereabouts of the remaining 24 are unknown.

“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,” officials told the sources. They also said that a bulk of the centrally protected monuments were identified in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s, and that in the decades after Independence, “the focus was on discovering new monuments than on conserving them.”

“Also, the priorities of successive governments in a newly independent nation were health and development, even as heritage was ignored,” officials told the sources, adding that “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.”

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First-of-its-kind physical verification operation conducted after Independence

The Comptroller and Auditor General classified 92 monuments "missing" in 2013 following a first-of-its-kind physical verification operation conducted after Independence.

The Parliamentary Committee noted that “out of the 92 monuments declared as missing by CAG, 42 have been identified due to efforts made by the ASI”, but that “14 are affected by rapid urbanisation, 12 are submerged by reservoir/dams while the location of the remaining 24 is still untraceable” from the remaining list of 50 monuments.

The panel also came down harshly on the distinction made by the ministry about the monuments lost to urbanisation/reservoirs, and 24 monuments which are untraceable, as “an academic distinction since monuments lost to urbanisation/reservoirs are also irrecoverable”.

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