BHUBANESWAR: Land sharks infringing into the Centrally-protected Chudangagada fort from one side and a state government department allegedly constructing school infrastructure on the other, has prompted the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to file cases with the local police.
The agency on Wednesday registered two cases stating a large portion of the site at Chandiprasad has been levelled by land mafia for plotting. The Department of Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) has allegedly encroached upon some parts at Dadhapatna and constructed an academic block and hostel of a school.
The cases were filed with the Baranga police station in the neighbouring Cuttack district where the 9th-century fort is located.
The land mafia which used JCB machines to level the land at Chandiprasad within the fort area damaged a substantial portion of the fort wall and several archaeological remains. Official sources said the local tehsil office had in the past sent applications to the ASI asking if the land within the fort area can be converted into ‘gharabari’ kisam and plotted for sale. The applications were rejected every time.
On the other hand, the SSEPD department has gone ahead with construction work despite being told by the ASI that it amounts to a violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (AMASR Act). The ASI last month informed the department that the construction, despite being welfare work, is against the law.
However, as work did not stop, it wrote another letter to the department on Tuesday asking it to abide by AMASR norms failing which action will be initiated under the act.
After filing of the police complaint, land levelling work stopped. SSEPD Minister Ashok Panda, however, said he is not aware of any such construction and will look into it.
The Chudangagada fort is believed to be built by Lalatendu Kesari of the Kesari dynasty who named it Saranga Gada because the fortification had a large number of water bodies in it. Later, it was captured by King Chodaganga Deva who defeated the Somavamsi dynasty ruler in 1110 CE and renamed it Chudangagada. The sandstone and laterite-built fort is in a rectangular plan measuring 1,700 x 1,500 metres.
Fort faces double trouble
“It is one of the finest examples of fortification and still has remains of a royal residential settlement called Solapuri Uasa (palace with 16 rooms), religious shrines, a granary and water bodies like Rani Pokhari, Hati Pokhari. Artefacts like iron objects, red and black-ware pottery, and broken architectural fragments have been excavated from here in the past,” said ASI Bhubaneswar circle head Dibishada Brajasundar Garnayak.
