PIL seeks protection of ancient rock carvings in refinery project site

The PIL, pending hearing, seeks no developmental or industrial work to be allowed in and around the sites where geoglyphs are situated in Konkan region.

The villagers and activists had staged protests against the project earlier this year.

While the PIL was listed before a bench led by Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya on September 5, the same could not come up for hearing due to paucity of time and is likely to be taken up later this month.

The Indian Express had last year reported that the conservationists and archeologists including the members of the expert team of the central government had raised concerns saying the refinery will end up damaging the geoglyphs and can be moved 5-10 km away from the present site.

Ganpat S Raut, a resident of Goval village and Ramchandra B Shelke, resident of Barsu village in Rajapur Taluka along with Mahendrakumar Gurav, native of Ratnagiri district who resides in Mumbai have filed a PIL through advocate Hamza Lakdawala.

The PIL claimed that while ASI has taken steps to submit the geoglyphs sites in Konkan to UNESCO for inclusion in World Heritage List, they have abdicated their statutory and constitutional duty to take steps towards declaring the said sites protected monuments.

The PIL stated that the geoglyphs are “at a risk of permanent damage and destruction due to inaction by government authorities, who have failed to declare them protected sites of state/national heritage under the  Maharashtra Ancient Monuments And Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1960 and the 1958 law.”

“This is especially necessary in light of the fact that many more geoglyphs, petroglyphs, or even ancient fossils and other signs of ancient life may be scattered around in the said area and may be permanently lost to human activities if the said area is not declared to be a ‘prohibited area’,” the PIL reads.

The PIL sought direction from the court to the state Directorate of Archeology and Museums to  issue notification under the 1960 law to assume guardianship of historical monuments near the Barsu area.

The rock art- geoglyphs or petroglyphs, estimated to be 20,000 years old and classified as protected monuments by the state archaeology department and the Archaeological Survey of India, have been added to the tentative list of UNESCO’s world heritage sites.

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