BHUBANESWAR: While Sishupalgarh has already lost a large part of its heritage to encroachments over the years, land sharks are now targeting whatever little is left of the ancient fortified city’s protected area. Two portions of the western rampart of Sisupalgarh have been damaged, soil at the site extracted and the land levelled by land mafia using JCB machines. When the matter came to fore on Thursday, officials of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Revenue department, district magistrate and local tehsildar visited the site and took stock of the situation.
ASI Bhubaneswar circle head Dibishada Brajasundar Garnayak said a complaint was filed in the Dhauli police station on the day and on Friday, a petition will be submitted to the Orissa High Court and chief secretary. The incident took place at a time when the ASI along with Bhubaneswar tehsil officials was demarcating government land in the 562.681 acre of Sisupalgarh mouza which was notified as an ancient monument on November 13, 1950. It had already put up pillar postings around the boundary of the 0.775 acre (within the 562.681 acre) for which it has the record of rights and where the excavations were carried in 1948- 49.
Some of the pillar postings have also been damaged by the miscreants, officials said. The government land is a square plan with ramparts (walls) extending up to 1.5 km on all four sides. In the past, houses were constructed in the periphery of the area where the land was levelled in blatant violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act 2010. The area is divided in five mouzas and there are around 300 buildings in the area (Gangotri Nagar) under Lingipur and Mahabhoisasan mouzas. The BDA has not given its approval to any of the buildings as the area is notified as a heritage zone in its comprehensive development plan. State convener of INTACH AB Tripathy, who had filed the petition in Orissa High Court 15 years back to save Sisupalgarh, said government should take immediate steps to construct a boundary wall around the 0.775 acre heritage site.