Ellora Caves, Golconda Fort among 278 protected monuments encroached upon

The Ellora Caves, Kolaba Fort, Grishneshwar temple and Anchaleshwar temple are some of the 30 centrally-protected monuments in Maharashtra that have been encroached upon by illegal occupants, revealed the ministry of culture in a written answer to MP Jaya Bachchan. In all, there are 278 centrally-protected monuments in the country that have illegal occupants encroaching some parts of the monument.

The 278 centrally-protected monuments include Purana Qila and Qudsia mosque in Delhi, Sher Shah's tomb in Bihar, Golconda fort in Hyderabad, Prithviraj Chauhan's fort in Haryana, and Golgumbaz and areas surrounding the structure. There are 3,685 monuments in the country that have been provided with protection by the government. In 2013-14, the government had allocated Rs 16,963.86 lakh to protect these monuments. The Archeological Survey of India, which is the authority to look after the protection of these monuments, had deployed 2,200 guards to take care of these monuments.

The encroachment of these monuments are looked after by the ASI under the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains 1958 (Amendment and Validation Act) 2010. The superintendent archeologist in each circle are vested with the power of an estate office to issue eviction notice under the Public Premises (Eviction of Unauthorised Occupants) Act, 1971. The ASI also seeks help from local police and state governments, and files cases when there are no fruitful results. State police guards and CSIF guards also have been provided to the ASI.

"Certain areas have specific problems, like the Purana Qila case, which has been lying in the courts for close to 25 years now. The built an illegal structure and there was a case. There are many such cases embroiled in the courts of law. We do our best with what is available with us," says BR Mani, Additional Director General at ASI.