The online campaign to declare the Chokahatu megaliths a World Heritage Site is gradually gaining ground. The online petition initiated by the noted megalith explorer and author Subhashis Das is receiving signatures from megalith lovers all over the world.
Das said that he wrote to the State Archaeological Dept, ASI Ranchi and ASI New Delhi to give protection to the megaliths of Jharkhand. He also wrote to UNESCO to give the Chokahatu megaliths the coveted World Heritage Status.
When they did not respond he was left with no choice other than to launch an online campaign.
He informed that in short span more than 275 signatures from all over the world supporting his campaign has come. Das stated the apathy towards megaliths’ protection is clearly evident. India has World Heritages of all the communities but not a single tribal site as a megalith has been ordained with the Status as Stonehenge and Avebury in the UK. Hire Benekal megaliths in Karnataka may be awarded this status soon, he added.
The Chokahatu megalith of Bundu, Ranchi is not only enormous in size but has the distinction of being perhaps as one of the few megalithic sites in the world where megaliths are still being raised by the tribal for more than 2500 years.
Such a feat is really one of its kinds and as it reveals a living tradition of megalith building since ancient times, this according to Das makes Chokahatu a sure contender for the World Heritage Status.
Das said that he read about Chokahatu megaliths in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal of 1873 in which Col. ET Dalton wrote that he had counted 7360 sepulchral slabs and the area then was spread to over 7 acres!
Reading of the site Das embarked on a journey in search of this enormous megalithic site in 2003.
He too found this site to be really very huge. Das said that this ancient burial ground is actually a Mundari harsali in which there are burial slabs and dolmens, locally known as sasandiris. “Megaliths are not a respected heritage even in tribal Jharkhand and the tribal themselves are not interested in their own culture”, Das quipped.
Das who has authored the book Sacred Stones in Indian Civilization also runs a website on megaliths www.megalithindia.in. His campaign is also supported by a Hindi version run by one Ak.