HC directs ASI to keep open Keeladi excavation site in TN

The Madras High Court today directed the Archaeological Survey of India to not close the excavated site at Keeladi in Sivaganga District of Tamil Nadu, where artefacts depicting ancient Tamil civilisation had been unearthed.
Justices K K Sasidharan and G R Swaminathan of the Madurai Bench gave the direction during the hearing of a PIL filed by Kanzimozhi, an advocate, and said the excavation site should remain open.
The petitioner had sought to continue with the excavation and also set up a museum at the site.
The judges pointed out that it will be proper and best for the site to remain open. Even Harappa and Mohenjodaro excavation sites remained open till now, they said.

If Keeladi site was a private land, steps should be taken to provide proper compensation to the owner and leave the excavation site open, they said.
The petitioner said that excavation site was the first Tamil civilisation along a river bed. About 3,500 artefacts had been collected from the site which prove that the Sangam age (200 BC) was not fiction, but real.
The articles depicted the ancient Tamil civilisation, heritage and they should be displayed in a site museum, the petitioner said.