Efforts stepped up to save Mukteshwar caves in Pathankot

Ravi Dhaliwal

Tribune News Service

Pathankot, June 12

The battle to prevent the 5,500-year-old Mukteshwar caves, synonymous with the legend of the Pandavas, from being submerged in water has intensified with two dozen members of the ‘Mukteshwar Dham Bachao Committee’ (MDBC) going on fast unto death at Dung village.

Last week, a procession was taken out from Pathankot to Gurdaspur and back to highlight the issue, which is threatening to blow up into a major controversy.

The MDBC fears that once the new lake of the Shahpur Kandi barrage is established, water level will go up and the caves will be submerged. A temple in the name of Lord Shiva is constructed on one of these archeologically significant structures.

Barrage officials have assured the members that they are making all out efforts to protect the caves. The Pathankot administration has also given an undertaking that nothing untoward will happen.

However, to the MDBC, these promises mean nothing. “Despite all these assurances, we know that the structures will be submerged as the water level is bound to increase,” said MDBC Chairman Bhim Singh.

Legend has it that all five Pandavas had created these massive fissures from the Shivalik hills on the Pathankot-Dalhousie road during their period in exile and subsequently made them their abode for several years. A kitchen and the bathroom, believed to be constructed by the Pandavas, are still there and can be seen by anybody who ventures atop the caves using ladders.

Barrage executive engineer Sudhir Gupta said there were a total of four caves out of which only two were in danger of being submerged once the new lake is completed. “The villagers are panicking unnecessarily as the lake will be completed in 2017 and there is enough time for us to plan and execute a project to salvage the sites,” he said.

Punjab Deputy Speaker Dinesh Babbu and senior Congressman Vinay Mahajan, both of whom belong to the area, said they were trying to hammer out a solution with the help of the MDBC.

“The villagers should not panic. I am going to take up the issue at the highest level in New Delhi. I am also going to take a delegation of villagers to meet officials of the Archaeological Survey of India soon,” Mahajan said.

“We have immense respect for these sites and that is the reason why we are waging a battle. The world-famous ‘Mukesran Da Mela’ is held here every year in April, which is attended by lakhs of tourists from Punjab, J&K and HP,” claimed Suraj Tiwari, priest of the temple.