600-yr-old Delhi tomb freed of encroachers

NEW DELHI: Many Delhi residents can claim to be living in heritage houses. But none of them can possibly boast of a home that's more than 600 years old; one that was built much before the first Mughal emperor set foot in India

. That's a `feat' achieved by a three generations of a family who had converted a Lodi-era tomb in south Delhi's plush Vasant Vihar into comfortable living quarters, complete with power connection and water supply.

On Thursday, however, law finally caught up with the encroachers — 50 years after they had moved into the Bara Lao ka Gumbad, and over time, blocked three of its four entrances, desecrated the graves, drilled holes into the structure, plastered the walls, installed wooden racks and hung paintings there.

``They had completely turned the ancient monument into private living quarters with no regard to its heritage status,'' said an official of the state archaeology department. ``Walls inside the gumbad have been painted white in several places; the facade is broken and in urgent need of attention.''

The 15th-century tomb, standing on a 4.35 metre high terrace and made of random rubble masonry, has been given the highest archaeological value, A, by INTACH. Experts said the monument is unique because of its size and the huge terrace it stands on, unlike the other tombs of the period. The original beautiful terraced garden there has been totally destroyed because of the encroachments.

On Thursday, Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and the state department of archaeology officials finally got rid of the encroachments within the monument and razed unauthorised structures around it.

The Bara Lao ka Gumbad, an unprotected structure till date, has now been handed over to the state archaeology department and notified as a protected structure by Delhi government.