50 ASI-Protected Monuments Untraceable, Ministry Of Culture Informs Parliament

The report stated that rapid urbanisation, remote locations, dense forests, non-availability of their proper location made it difficult for the Archaeological Survey of India to locate the structures.

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At least 50 of the 3,693 centrally protected monuments in the country are missing, the Ministry of Culture stated in its submission report to the Parliament Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture on December 8. The report titled ‘Issues relating to Untraceable Monuments and Protection of Monuments in India’, flagged it as a matter of 'grave concern'.

"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."

The report stated that rapid urbanisation, remote locations, dense forests, non-availability of their proper location made it difficult to locate the structures.

Out of the 50 missing monuments, 14 were lost to urbanisation, 12 were submerged by reservoirs, and the locations of others remain untraceable. Eleven of these monuments were in Uttar Pradesh alone,  as well as two each in Delhi and Haryana. Monuments from Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are also in the list.

Manpower shortage to physically man all the big and small monuments were also citied as one of the reasons for the missing monuments.

“The committee notes with dismay that out of the total requirement of 7,000 personnel for the protection of monuments, the government could provide only 2,578 security personnel at 248 locations due to budgetary constraints," the submission report stated. 

The report further said that many of the lost monuments could have been removed or destroyed, due to the difficulties in tracking them. 

"A bulk of the centrally protected monuments were identified in the 1930s, 1940s and 1950s, and that in the decades after Independence, the focus was on discovering new monuments than on conserving them," the report said.

The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), which is under the aegis of the Union Ministry of Culture, functions under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR Act), which regulates the preservation of monuments and archaeological sites of national importance.

 The AMASR act protects monuments and sites that are over 100 years old.