Odisha’s modern capital swallows its ancient urban hub Premium

Odisha’s modern capital swallows its ancient urban hub: Sisupalgarh

It was a regular day at the office for Dibishada Brajasundar Garnayak. As the Superintending Archaeologist of the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) Puri circle, a lot of his work requires detailed paperwork. As he was bent over a document, he received a call from a source.

The person alerted him to earthmovers and other heavy vehicles razing mounds on the southern and western ramparts of Sisupalgarh, a fort city along a kilometre-wide expanse, dating as far back as the 7th century BC, possibly the capital of a province of the kingdom of Kalinga.

Mr. Garnayak’s ASI office is just 2 km from Sisupalgarh, so he threw his lanky legs into his car and headed there. For historians like him, the mounds are a treasure trove of ancient civilisation materials; for the land mafia with bulldozers, it’s just mud, with which money can be made.

The intervention minimised the damage, but “it seems like the ancient fort can no longer hold enemies back”, says Mr. Garnayak with irony, and helplessness. His alertness in the past has saved a 1,300-year-old Buddhist stupa at a mining site near Jaipur, Rajasthan.

Given that the Orissa High Court had in January this year directed that encroachments on the heritage site be removed and vacant lands be handed over to the ASI, this attack on March 1 from land sharks was particularly audacious.

The court had directed a joint survey of the land around Sisupalgarh by the ASI and the local tehsildar within 90 days. This is currently being carried out.

“The land itself stretched to 562.681 acres, across five villages — Sisupalgarh, Badadhanpur, Lingipur, Raghunathpur, and Mahabhoi Sasan — and had been notified (marked to be acquired) by the government in 1950,” says Mr. Garnayak. It never was.