50 of 3,693 centrally-protected monuments are missing, Govt tells Parliament

At least 50 of India's 3,693 protected monuments have been found to be missing, a submission made in the Parliament by the Ministry of Culture said, flagging it as a matter of 'grave concern'. The Ministry said several monuments protected under the Archaeological Survey of India (Ministry of Culture) have been missing for several years for various reasons. The Ministry said some of the monuments have suffered due to constant urbanisation, while some have become submerged under the waters of dams and reservoirs. Some others, meanwhile, have been difficult to trace due to their remoteness or their locations being inside deep forest areas.

“…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 submissions made by the Ministry on December 8.

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The Ministry made the submission to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Transport, Tourism and Culture in a report titled ‘Issues relating to Untraceable Monuments and Protection of Monuments in India’.

Senior ASI officials Culture Secretary Govind Mohan, ASI Director-General V Vidyavathi had also shared the same with the committee back in May 2022.

The monuments that have been said to be missing include at least 11 from Uttar Pradesh and two each from Delhi and Haryana too. Momuments from Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand are also in the list, the submission has said.

14 monuments in the list have been lost due to urbanisation while 12 have been been submerged under the waters of dams and reservoirs. 24 monuments remain untraceable so far, the report said.

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Officials have said that many of these lost monuments are also inscriptions and tablets which could have been removed or destroyed, explaining 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," a report in The Sunday Express said.

A physical verification of the monuments for the first time since Independence had revealed in 2013 that 92 monuments were missing.