Context:

Recently, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has declared two mounds at Rakhigarhi in Hisar district (Harrapan Site) as protected. 

More on the News

• These Mounds (namely mounds number 6 and 7) are declared protected under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958.
• Out of the total seven mounds at the site, four mounds had already been declared protected, making the total protected mound to 6. Now only one mound (number 4) is yet to be declared protected. 

Impact of declaration of protected areas

• The newly declared protected area of mounds will be acquired by the government and compensation will be given to the farmers concerned. 
• Vacation of the land would be required after its acquisition.
• Till the land is acquired, agriculture at the land will be allowed but cutting of the mound would be prohibited.
• The cultivation would be allowed in the soil but a penetration inside the earth will not be allowed. Nobody can disturb and cut the mound. 
• The soil concerned cannot be sold.

About Rakhigarhi

• It is one of the oldest and largest cities of the Indus Valley Civilization located in the Hisar district, in the Ghaggar-Hakra river plain of Haryana.
• There are a total of 11 excavation mounds in Rakhigarhi, and they are a mix of residential sites and burial sites. 
• In total, they cover an area of about 5.5 km, making Rakhigarhi the largest Indus Valley Civilisation site.
• The site was first discovered in the 1960s by the Archeological Survey of India.

Other recent Findings in Rakhigarhi

• During this excavation at the site, the skeletal remains of two women were excavated and believed to be nearly 5000 years old.
• In 2023, researchers from Deccan College Pune and the Central Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) confirmed that human remains found at the ancient Rakhigarhi site in Haryana are approximately 8,000 years old.
• In 2022 in an excavation, an aristocratic settlement was discovered after excavations at the site.