Land Mafia Damage Rampart Of Ancient Fortified City Sisupalgarh On Bhubaneswar Outskirts

Bhubaneswar: Land sharks have allegedly damaged portions of western and south-west rampart of the fortified ancient city of Sisupalgarh, a archaeological heritage that has survived over 2,600 years, on the outskirts of Bhubaneswar.

Soil has also been extracted from site and land levelled using JCB machines, according to a complaint lodged at Dhauli police station.

Officials of Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Revenue department, district magistrate and local tehsildar also visited the site and took stock of the situation on Thursday. The ASI will also submit a petition in this regard to the Orissa High Court and chief secretary.

Some pillar postings, which were been put up around the boundary of 0.775 acre recorded in favour of ASI of the total area notified as an ancient monument on November 13, 1950, have also been damaged, officials said.

The brazen act of destruction came  at a time when the ASI and Bhubaneswar tehsil officials were working in tandem to safeguard the invaluable heritage by demarcating government land in 562.681 acre of Sisupalgarh Mouza following a Orissa High Court order in January.

The ASI had excavated the archaeological remains of what possibly was one of the earliest fortified cities in 1948.

The centrally-protected monument area have already been endangered by encroachments and unauthorised constructions. The land was levelled and houses were constructed in the periphery of the area in blatant violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (AMASR) Act 2010.

Since the land mafia strike at night, the ASI has sought people’s support to save the monument.