Chhattisgarh: 6-foot Ganesha idol located on a hill in Dantewada's Dholkal, found damaged last week, has been restored to its original place pic.twitter.com/JeeCgQDlkE



— ANI (@ANI_news) February 2, 2017

RAIPUR: The 1,000-year-old Ganesha idol , broken to pieces allegedly by Maoists, was restored to its original site atop Dholkal hill and consecrated by local religious rites on Wednesday evening.The idol was found missing from its perch atop the 13,000-ft-high hill in the dense forests of Bastar last Friday, triggering a frantic search.Villagers and the administration painstakingly recovered 62 pieces and carried these up the steep hillside on Wednesday. Since few would be able to climb all the way to the top, a thousand people gathered at the foothill for the consecration ceremony, guarded by heavily armed security forces.“The idol has been restored with its 62 pieces recovered from the area. We used an established process, using chemicals made from porous stone to fill in the cracks.Now the idol has been fixed permanently atop Dholkal hill,“ said Jeet Singh Arya, working closely with the Dantewada administration for the idol's restoration.Dantewada collector Saurabh Kumar told TOI, “Restoration of the majestic idol was completed in three days.Since this site is neither protected by the state nor Archaeological Survey of India , it will be under the protection of Faraspal gram panchayat and district administration."Veteran archaeologist, 84-year-old Arun Kumar Sharma -recipient of Padmashree this year -and his team have been camping in the village to complete the restoration of the idol. Dating back to the Nagvanshi era, the idol was discovered only in 2012 and quickly became revered in the region.Bastar police suspected the desecration of the idol to be the handiwork of Maoists who were alarmed by the crowds that started visiting this remote region. News that the government would spend Rs 2 crore to develop it as a tourist spot worried the rebels who use this region as a stronghold.The rapid restoration was trending on Twitter with # DholkalGanesh and #Dholkalproject, where people were touched by the swift response of Chhattisgarh government in tracing and restoring the Ganesh idol.