NEW DELHI: Archaeological Survey of India ( ASI ), the government agency responsible for preserving the country’s cultural heritage, has a startling revelation on offer. It just doesn’t know where 35 of its protected monuments have disappeared. “Untraceable” is the word they use.

This information, which came as an answer to a question in Parliament on March 12, says that from a pre-historic site in Mysore to the remains of an ancient building in Nanital, from a 12th-century temple in Rajasthan to the guns Sher Shah used, many of what should have been India’s prized possessions are nowhere to be found.

Delhi might have been north India’s seat of power for many centuries, hence the site of several of these monuments, but when it comes to its upkeep and preservation, it fares the worst. Of the 35 lost monuments, 12 were from here. The capital city is followed by Uttar Pradesh with eight such monuments/sites missing. J&K and Uttrakhand have lost two each, and so have Gujarat, Haryana and Rajasthan. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam and Karnataka record one such missing site.

But how can a monument -- a permanent structure – vanish in thin air? “There could be several reasons,” says SK Mitra, ASI’s director of exploration & excavation. “We might have lost them because of modern construction, encroachment or perhaps destruction dating back to the British Raj.” Rapid urbanization, too, takes a toll.

Experts typically link encroachment with the gradual disappearance of monuments. Surprisingly, another Parliament question answered on the same

date indicates that there have been encroachments at 249 monuments/sites. Places like the ancient burial cave at Thrissur, pre-historic rock shelter at Raisen, megalithic site at Kanchipuram, rock-cut caves at Bongaigaon, Prithvi Raj Chauhan Fort at Hissar, and the Buddhist stupa at Champaran were all victims of encroachment. Even famous sites like Agra’s Jama Masjid, the Ellora caves and Golkonda Fort could not fend off the surge of modern-day settlers. As of December 2012, ASI has succeeded in clearing only 24 such encroachments.

The important question now is if the number of 35 missing monuments will decrease, with some gradually being traced by the ASI. Though ASI has been continuously working on this project, locating these is not easy. In fact, experts say the recovery might never happen.

“Because of re-organisation and division of districts and tehsils, the original khasra documentation detailing the monuments’ site, as mentioned in the old gazettes, have become meaningless,” says Mitra. “After every re-organisation, new khasra numbers are issued. This makes tracking the original location extremely difficult. We as Indians can only make a pledge that we will not let more of our monuments disappear like this.”