Why in news? Karnataka archaeology Department recommends notifying 181 monuments across State as protected

Highlights:

• The Karnataka State’s inventory of monuments protected by the Karnataka Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1961, is to revise for the first time in decades.
• Revenue Department in different districts will furnish records pertaining to the monuments to ascertain their current legal status.
• 181 monuments that have been identified are from those for which 3D laser scanning has completed under a different project

Karnataka Digital Heritage (KDH) Programme

• Karnataka Digital Heritage is under taken by Karnataka State Council for Science & Technology (KSCST) for 3D laser scanning of monuments
• Project is to create digital data on all heritage sites spread across all 30 districts of Karnataka state under the jurisdiction of Department of Archeology, Museum & Heritage of Karnataka .
• It aims to extend the power of digital advanced technologies to capture, collect and create the database for preserving and sharing the database for future Preservation

Objectives

• To Collect the data on Heritage sites and Monuments and capture the Geographical location of protected monuments using GPS
• Geo-tagging of Photographs and Creation of the database on various parameters of all Heritage monuments using Geo-spatial technologies (GPS, GIS, RS)
• To capture the Surface Geometric details of all these Heritage Monuments using 3D Laser Scanner for 3D Modeling
• Generation of 3D Point cloud data, 3D Mesh Models and CAD Engineering drawings of these monuments
• Organization of Training programmes for Officials on utilization of Laser scanned data outputs for restoration and conservation of Heritage sites

About Archaeological monuments

• At present, there are 848 monuments across Karnataka which have been declared and notified as protected under the Karnataka Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, and receives priority in conservation and maintenance
• Once approved the number of State protected monuments in Karnataka will go up to 1,029.
• Of the 848 monuments, 105 are under Bengaluru division, 365 under Belagavi division, 249 under Kalaburagi division, and 120 under Mysuru division.
• In addition to State-protected monuments, Karnataka is also home to 609 monuments protected by the Archeological Survey of India of the Centre.