The Teliagarhi fort in Sahebganj. Picture by Manoj Saha

Aug. 2: The once impregnable Teliagarhi fort, which had forced Humayun’s nemesis Sher Shah Suri to take the jungle route to enter then undivided Bengal, is today threatened by small stone quarries that are mushrooming unbridled in and around the historical structure.

The Sahebganj district administration, expected to put a leash on the stone mafia, pleads helplessness as the fort is yet to get protected monument status either from the state tourism department or the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI).

Sources said the ASI (Ranchi circle) that had recommended monument of national importance tag for the Mughal era fort last year was still awaiting an approval from its headquarters in Delhi.

However, intervention from Union tourism minister Sultan Ahmed, who wishes to develop a tourism corridor in Malda and Sahebganj on the lines of Kumarakom in Kerala, has rekindled hopes of conservation of the edifice.

“The Teliagarhi fort has the potential to be developed as an important tourist spot. If the state approaches us, we can take up the matter of granting protected monument status with Union ministry of culture and the ASI director,” Ahmed told The Telegraph in Calcutta.

But he added: “The protection of such monuments is a state subject and does not come under my jurisdiction. All I can do is request the Jharkhand governor to crackdown on illegal stone pits surrounding the fort.”

So, all hopes are now pinned on Governor M.O.H. Farook, who recently ordered cancellation of mining leases of two China clay firms that were posing threat to Jami Masjid, another Mughal era monument, in Rajmahal.

With chief secretary A.K. Singh directing deputy commissioners and superintendent of police to launch a major crackdown on illegal mining across the state, the otherwise hesitant Sahebganj administration may, finally, take action against illegal mining in and around Teliagarhi fort.

Besides conservation, the fort, situated on the Rajmahal Hills near Karamtola station, around 6-7km from Sahebganj district headquarters, also needs renovation. In 2006-07, the state had allocated Rs 1 crore for renovation of the fort, but the funds, which lay unused for years, had to be returned.

“District officials only talk about renovation and conservation of the monument, but nothing is done in reality,” Yogendra Prasad Roy, the head of history department at Sahebganj College, exposed a bitter truth.