ASI declares 3,667 monuments for conservation

Machilipatnam, July 23: The Archeological Survey of India (ASI) has declared 3,667 monuments as of national importance which include 21 properties enlisted in the world heritage list by UNESCO.

Talking to UNI, ASI sources at Ghantasala Buddhist Centre here said conservation, preservation and maintenance of the centraly protected monuments and sites were the prime tasks of ASI.

The total number of individual structures maintained by ASI is over 5,000. During 2005-06 more than 700 monuments were taken up for conservation and structural repairs, chemical preservation and environmental development besides day to day maintenance of 3,667 monuments.

Of 172 monuments taken for scientific preservation, 168 were selected for environmental development in and around the sites.

The excavations at St Augustine complex, Goa had unearthed tombstones and burial chambers of the friars (brothers of Augustinian order), the source added.

In Nalgonda district of Andhra Pradesh recently excavated Buddhist site at Phanigiri had yielded a number of early Brahmi inscriptions in Prakrit and Sanskrit languages. One of them was engraved on a loose stone in Prakrit language and Brahmi characters and estimated to be of third century AD, sources said.

The escavations carried out by ASI's under-water archaeology wing in its offshore and onshore excavations at Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, had proved human activities in the form of geometric cuttings on the rocks and stones.

Further investigations revealed submerged structures and carved architectural members of archeological interest. Remains of two structural temples were also unearthed.

UNI