The "Disappearing" Act by 35 Indian Monuments

Its been a few weeks since I blogged because I was out of the country travelling with my husband. We were in Europe for a few weeks for a family wedding and also visiting Vienna and Salzburg in Austria and Prague in the Czech Republic. This was our first trip to Central/Eastern Europe and we visited a number of historic palaces and churches from the Hapsburg Reign which are remarkably well perserved. You could really get a sense of the region's history by visiting the museums and monuments. I was also in Delhi this weekend for Independence Day and Janam Ashtimi (Lord Krishna's birthday) and it struck me how rich India's history is as well - if only we could better maintain our monuments - many of which are fast disappearing. I just read in the papers that out of 3675 national monuments, 35 have gone untraceable. In Delhi alone 12 monuments have disappeared. Eight sites in Uttar Pradesh, three each from Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir and two each in Rajasthan, Gujarat and Haryana are also untraceable. The reason cited are 'urbanization, commercialization and implementation of development projects.' If only we could better manage the country's infrastructure development without putting our national monuments at risk, the Europeans would be spend ing as much on us as we do on them! What are your ideas to strike the balance?