The ancient mound at Mehrauli in South Delhi, including Anang Tal lake, could soon become a Centrally-protected site, with the Archaeological Survey of India this week calling for objections or suggestions to its plan to declare it a site of national importance.
The ASI said in a gazette notification on Monday that “the Central Government is of the opinion that the ancient mound including Anang Tal,… is an ancient site and remains of national importance”. The ASI gave a two-month notice for its intention to declare the site to be of national importance under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958. Once declared to be of national importance, the site would be protected by the ASI and incur restrictions on construction activity in its vicinity. The notification asked for objections and suggestions to be sent to the ASI director-general for a period of two months, after which they would be taken into consideration by the government.
According to the notification, the total area of the site was 10.599 acre that was primarily owned by the Delhi government. Located near the Qutub Minar complex and Sanjay Van, the protected area would be 42,894 square metres.
National Monuments Authority chairman Tarun Vijay, who, along with officials, visited the site in May, has called for the restoration of the site that was built by the 11th Century Tomar king Anang Pal Tomar. After visiting the site that has several encroachments, Mr. Vijay said in a statement that the ASI had excavated the site in 1993 and had a detailed survey map of the area.
“Mr. Vijay said that the time to highlight historic truth is now and it is heartening that NMA has succeeded in bringing out the facts about the founder king of Delhi. The city was known earlier as DhillikaPuri, as stone inscriptions excavated by Lord Cunningham have revealed,” the statement read.
