There have been 12 instances of antiquities being either smuggled out or stolen from monuments, sites or museums maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India since 2009.
However, none of them have been recovered.
In 2009, there were two instances, one in April while other in September, when antiquities were smuggled from the ruins of temple of Gadgach Atru in Rajasthan's Baran district, Minister of Culture Chandresh Kumar Katoch informed Lok Sabha today.
In 2011, two antiquities -- nandi sculpture and stone bud portion -- were stolen from Sivalayam temple of old Vishnu and Mukteshwara Swamy complex and Mahamantapa in Soumyanathna Swamy temple in Andhra Pradesh's Cuddapah district.
Last year, there were five incidents in Rajasthan, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Tamil Nadu and Assam.
And this year, till May 3, three cases -- two from Karnataka and one from Chhattisgarh -- have been reported, the Minister said, adding FIRs have been lodged in all the cases but the antiquities have not been recovered yet.
In reply to separate question, Katoch said that ASI had issued 886 demolition orders since January 1, 2010 till May 3, 2013 to raze unauthorised constructions, colonies and multi- storey buildings that have come up in prohibited and regulated areas of centrally protected monuments.
She also said that a total of 5,552 unauthorised constructions have been reported within prohibited areas and 5,091 within regulated area of the centrally protected monuments or sites in the country.
While replying a question on endangered language, the Minister informed the House that UNESCO in its 2009 Report on Language Endangerment has listed 196 Indian languages or mother tongues, "however, all of them are not endangered."
She said, "A scheme for protection and preservation of 520 languages and mother tongues spoken by less than 10,000 persons is implemented by the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore for the 12th Five Year plan period.
