Most of the historical monuments at the Hampi World Heritage Site, including the ancient Gaali Gopura that was pulled down by treasure hunters on Saturday night, have no security personnel to protect them.
Miscreants have free access to Saraswati Temple, Chandrashekara Temple, Queen’s Bath, Danda Nayakana Kote and Kadalekalu Ganesha among other historical monuments as they do not have any barricades around.
“Only 23 personnel guard some of the monuments here at night. We have no provision to provide protection to the other monuments,” say sources at the Security Intelligence Service.
No security personnel are posted at the entry points of the heritage site, and the worst is that closed-circuit television cameras (CCTV) fixed at five places have not been working for the past 20 days. Officials concerned had not made any efforts to repair them, the sources said.
Even though five CCTV cameras with a coverage range of over one km radius were fixed at Virupaksha Temple, Matanga Parvata, Vijaya Vitala Temple and the entrance of Kamalapur, hillocks hid some areas, sources said.
The security guards on night duty were not even provided with good torch lights, sources added.
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