The State’s inventory of monuments protected by the Karnataka Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1961, is set to witness an upward revision for the first time in decades.
The Department of Archaeology Museums and Heritage (DAMH) has recommended to the government to notify 181 monuments across the State as protected under the KAMASR Act, 1961.
At present, there are 848 monuments across Karnataka which have been declared and notified as protected under the law and receives priority in conservation and maintenance. Once approved the number of State protected monuments in Karnataka will go up to 1,029.
3D laser mapping
“There could be more monuments that will make it to the list but the 181 monuments that have been identified are from those for which 3D laser scanning was completed under a different project,” said to A. Devaraj, Commissioner, DAMH.
The 3D laser mapping was taken up under the Karnataka Digital Heritage project and was entrusted to the Karnataka State Council for Science and Technology which completed the exercise and submitted a report to the government.
The Archaeology Department has already written to the Revenue Department in different districts to furnish any records pertaining to the monuments to ascertain their current legal status.
Some of the monuments that will be declared as State protected include Panchalingeshwara temple complex, Kalleshwara temple, and Neelkanteshwara temple at Belligave in Shikaripur taluk of Shivamogga district; Mallikarjuna temple, Neelakaneshwara temple, Someshwara temple, Chandramouleshwara temple, and Lakshminarayana temple at Lakkundi in Gadag district; Raja’s tomb at Hudikeri in Madikeri taluk, Nalkunadu Aramane at Napoklu, also in Madikeri taluk, and the Jain basadi at Anjanageri-Bettageri in Somwarpet taluk of Kodagu district to name a few.
Mr. Devaraj said some of the monuments in the list may already have been declared as protected but the notification giving effect to it were missing or had to be traced.
In various divisions
Of the 848 protected monuments in the State, 105 are under Bengaluru division, 365 under Belagavi division, 249 under Kalaburagi division, and 120 under Mysuru division.
In addition to State-protected monuments, Karnataka is also home to 609 monuments protected by the Archeological Survey of India of the Centre.
