Ancient Buddhist caves destroyed during CIL WCL coal mining

Wednesday, 20 Jul 2011 |IBNLive

Four ancient Buddhist caves that were known as Mana caves, located around 3 kilometer from Chandrapur, were destroyed during the routine mining activity of the Mana Opencast Mines of Western Coalfields Limited on Wednesday.

The caves were approximately 2,000 year old. This incident, which came to the notice of people on Thursday, has invited sharp criticism from various quarters.

District Collector Mr Vijay Waghmare said that WCL had not obtained any permission for the demolition of caves. He also assured to take up the issue with the state Archaeology Department.

Assistant Director, State Archaeology, Mr Anand Bhoyar maintained that even though the caves were not listed as protected monuments, no one including WCL had the authority to destroy these historically important monuments.