Every archaeology site being destroyed in name of tourism: HC on hillock damage

Panaji: The Bombay high court on Wednesday grilled the directorate of archives and archaeology over the destruction and damage to a hillock within the precincts of Chandreshwar Bhoothnath Temple at Paroda, Quepem, which is declared a state-protected monument under the Goa Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act 1978.

The directorate on Sep 27, 2018 granted an NOC to GTDC for construction of a 300m-long retaining wall, a platform for a viewpoint, a toilet block and beautification works in and around the temple after the GTDC submitted a proposal on Sep 20, 2018 seeking permission for beautification works.

The directorate told the high court that the contractor appointed by GTDC caused damage to the hillock, which was outside its scope of work.

“We would assume that a place of this sort, which is protected by your department, must have your engineer and your archaeologist on site when the work is going on. It’s happening right under your nose and you don’t bother,” the division bench of Justices Valmiki Menezes and Amit Jamsandekar stated during the hearing.

“Every archaeology site is being destroyed like this with these contracts in the name of tourism. Tourism is not this. You can preserve the site and let tourists come and see it but not destroy some place... then there’s nothing for tourists to see and everyone throws their hands up,” the bench said during the hearing.

The bench said they want to understand how the directorate gave an NOC to the GTDC to go ahead with beautification works of a site under its protection. “Three crore and 69 lakh and what have you achieved? Destruction of the whole surroundings of the temple... we are concerned... we have to get to the bottom of this,” the bench said.

“We will hold the person, whoever it is in your department who should have been at site, responsible for this fiasco of damaging something. It can’t even be restored now as it’s part of an ancient monument,” the bench further said. The directorate told the court that since it was a hillock, there’s no particular organisation which can help it restore it and that it is seeking help of Goa Engineering College to guide it.

The high court directed the MD of GTDC to file an affidavit placing on record the complete proposal submitted to the directorate of archives and archaeology for beautification of the temple premises, along with all plans and annexures, with a copy of the work order issued and details of expenditure incurred and proposed to be incurred.

The HC also directed the directorate of archives and archaeology to file an affidavit explaining the decision-making process and mechanism adopted in granting a NOC to GTDC for undertaking such works at a protected monument. It also directed the directorate to place on record an estimate of the cost required to restore the site to its original condition.