New buildings have sprung up near the 16 pillars at Sisupalgarh. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, May 15: The state government has asked the Khurda district administration to prepare a land status report for areas in and around Sisupalgarh so that a permanent conservation plan of the historic monument can be put in place.

The ruins of a fortified settlement dating back to the 3rd century BC were found in 1948 by famous archaeologist B.B. Lal at Sisupalgarh. The place is believed to have been the seat of power of the ancient Kalinga kingdom.

Five villages near the historic monument have sprung up on land, parts of which belong to the government and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). The district administration will prepare a report identifying the types of land being occupied by people and various agencies so that the land falling inside and near the periphery of the monument is assessed following conservation laws.

Sources said once the land status report was ready, the revenue department might move a proposal to the state government to stop activities such as buying and selling of land and building plan approval near the monument and conversion of land from agriculture to household.

“The district collector of Khurda will provide a detailed report on the land status of Sisupalgarh through the local revenue officials. As several illegal structures are coming around the protected monument, steps will be taken to recover land violating conservation laws and stop all land transfer activities in the near future, if needed,” revenue divisional commissioner Arabinda Padhee told The Telegraph.

In the past, ASI authorities have complained that the state administration was not showing enough interest to make the land available for excavation and other development activities near the historic site.

Khurda district collector Roopa Mishra said: “The land status report will take around one month to prepare. The violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act, 2010, will be studied because it is found that many structures have come up within 100 metres of the monument, especially the 16 pillars of Sisupalgarh.”

However, the district collector said the next course of action would be formulated only after studying the land status report carefully.

“It will be too early to say whether the freezing of land-related activities will be affected or not. But a concrete action plan will be prepared looking at the nature of the violation of the stringent Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act,” she said.

“We had demarcated the areas under Sisupalgarh as a no-construction zone and it was the responsibility of the Odisha government and the ASI to safeguard the monument,” associate professor, department of architecture and regional planning, IIT Kharagpur, Sanghamitra Basu had told The Telegraph on April 7.

Basu was a member of the IIT Kharagpur team, which drafted the comprehensive development plan for the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA).

Basu, who is an executive member of the National Monuments Authority, also expressed surprise over the fact that while there are more than 300 ancient monuments in Bhubaneswar, till date, not a single case has been filed related to violation of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act.

Another senior revenue official said: “After studying the report of the district collector, the BDA will be asked not to give any building approval plan around the historic monument in Sisupalgarh.”

Member, town and regional planning, BDA, Pitabasa Sahoo, however, felt the conservation plan of all the ancient structures would be incorporated under the zonal development plan of the different areas under the comprehensive development plan.

The area surrounding Sisupalgarh is dotted with hundreds of houses and many real-estate development agencies have become active inside the protected area.

The Telegraph first carried a report on September 6, 2010, called “Brick threat to the historic ruins” on this. However, neither the ASI nor the state government took any action and more structures came up.