Supratik Mukherji, administrator, Perth university, and Bhaskar Rao Mudbul, director of Research Centre for History of Surpur, have urged the State government to take steps to protect historical monuments in Surpur and Shahpur taluks in the district from vandals and the vagaries of the weather.
Mr. Mukherji and Mr. Mudbul told presspersons that most of the walls of important forts, one each in Waganagera in Surpur taluk, and Hosakera and Wandurga in Shahpur taluk, had collapsed owing to rain and other reasons.
The State government had to take up restoration work on these monuments and establish a museum in the district headquarters, they said.
Mr. Mukherji, who has visited Surpur nearly six times since 1995 and has filmed a 24-minute documentary on its history, said the government had to develop interior roads so that the public had easy access to Bonhal tank, which was built during the British administration, and other forts so that they could understand the history of Surpur.
Mr. Mudbul said that work to protect the burial ground of British commander Captain Newberry, who was killed by Raja Venkatappa Naik in 1858 at Rukmapur, near Surpur, was in progress and Rs. 5 lakh, which was released by the former MP Sanna Fakirappa in 2013, has been utilised for the purpose.
He also urged the district administration to convert Taylor’s Manzil in Surpur, under the supervision of the Public Works Department, into a museum to exhibit the belongings of British officer Philip Meadows Taylor.
