BENGALURU: Having come under pressure from citizens, historians, travel enthusiasts and history lovers, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) officials said that the restoration of broken down Devanahalli Fort walls will be completed by March 2022. However, even after setting a deadline, work has not yet started. The interior and exterior walls of the fort continue to resemble a rubble pile.
To put pressure citizens and history lovers have now also started to take to social media to point to the urgency, which has led to to online shaming of the State Government and the ASI officials. In November, 2021, visitors to the site, in Chikkaballapur, had noticed the collapsed walls of the centrally protected heritage site and reported it to the state government.
But officials from ASI visited the site only in January 2022, to take details and send it to the central government, for funds to re- construct the collapsed interior and exterior walls. History enthusiasts alleged, “ASI used to undertake only symbolic clearing of weeds around the walls, fort area and near the moats and lake. But was not maintained properly.
Incase of other properties, thorough maintenance works are taken up. But this fort has been neglected, despite its proximity to Bengaluru. The moat was never cleaned up also.” ASI officials have blamed the bad weather conditions for the wall collapse. Bipin Chandra, Superintending Archaeologist, ASI, told The New Express that the walls collapsed due to heavy rainfall experienced in the part of the city. Teams have visited the sites and an estimate report of around Rs 1-1.5 crore has been prepared and sent to the central government.
Noted historian Arun Prasad said that the fort was the strongest of all and bad weather cannot be the reason for wall collapse. The fort was built by Mallabyragowda, ancestor of Kempegowda in 1501. Later in the 18th century, Mysuru dynasty conquered it and then it was under Hyder Ali, who strengthened it with granite stones. Tipu was born in the entrance of the fort in 1750 and British conquered it in 1791 during the Bangalore- Mysuru war. The fort walls were still not damaged. It was one of the finest forts and was compared to the old Bangalore fort in shape, size and bastion design, Prasad added.