Indian authorities struggle to trace 24 missing monuments
The ancient temple of Kutumbari stood for centuries in Dwarahat in north India. Then one day in the 1960s, officials realised it had vanished from records – and later discovered it had disappeared altogether.
Kutumbari is one of 24 landmarks on a list of now “untraceable” protected monuments in India. Some have gone missing because of inadequate or antiquated record-keeping; others have physically disappeared, destroyed by natural disasters or by humans.
This week, after repeated calls by Indian parliamentarians to locate lost monuments, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), the government agency responsible for the conservation of heritage buildings and artefacts, instructed its local affiliates to redouble efforts to find a cache of missing antiquities that includes medieval tombs, inscribed tablets and temples. Some of the items on the list have been lost for decades.
The search revived concerns from historians and archaeologists about whether India’s centuries-old historical treasures are being protected while the country chases development targets.
As India’s fortunes rise, a poorly staffed bureaucracy has overseen decades of growth. Successive leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, stressed the need for new roads, housing and infrastructure to keep pace with the growing population’s needs.
They are invaluable treasures of our nation which cannot be explained or weighed in monetary terms
But with the emphasis on rapid development, hundreds of India’s ancient monuments, and with them millennia of history, could be lost, damaged or degraded.
“We have lost sight of the value of these things,” said Swapna Liddle, convenor of the Delhi chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.
