International smugglers are keeping an eye on the centuries old priceless idols in Dantewada district. According to sources, a number of over 1000-year-old priceless idols were spread in Bade Tumnar village areas on the National Highway no.16 in Dantewada district. The preservation of these idols was not being done by the state or central Archaeological department.
According to villagers, more than two dozen idols have disappeared from the Tumnar lake and nearby forest areas and smugglers are keeping their eyes on the remaining ones also. Bade Tumnar, about 24 km away from the district headquarters, has special importance. A number of idols of 9th and 10th centuries, including rare idols of Sun god, are spread in the lake and forests of the village.The Archaeology department also knows this fact. The State Archaeology department and the Central Archaeology department have been preserving the age-old idols in Barsur, Dantewada, Bhairamdev and Samlur areas, but both these departments are allegedly not taking interest in preserving the idols spread in the Bade Tumnar area.
Residents of the village said that since long they have been worshiping these idols spread in the area as their village god. However, during the last 20 years, over two dozen priceless idols are missing from Bade Tumnar and Mirtur areas. Some people had tried to carry away the idols kept near Chhindnar Chowk in Bade Tumnar, but the villagers, with mutual cooperation, protected the Bhairamdev idol by construction a small temple there.
The villagers said that still over 50 idols were left neglected at Bade Tumnar lake, Chhindnar Chowk and Tumnar forests. The smugglers have eyed on the rare Ganesh idol received from Barhan Dara also, hence it was brought to the Shivalaya situated at Gumargunda. Recently, some suspicious persons from the neighbouring Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra states had visited the area and enquired from the villagers about the idols, the villagers said.
The villagers are angry that though the Chhattisgarh Archaeological Survey department and the Central Archaeology Survey department have the information about the archaeologically important idols of Bade Tumnar, but they neither tried to prepare the history of Bade Tumnar, nor the preservation of the idols. In-charge of the Archaeological Museum Jagdalpur JR Bhagat said that a proposal was there to bring the idols spread in Bade Tumnar, Mirtur and Chhindnar to the Museum, but no such scheme to preserve the idols has been prepared.