New Delhi - The earthquake in western India has flattened many of the area's historic monuments, temples and medieval forts, conservation experts said yesterday. A 113-year-old museum in the devastated town of Bhuj has been reduced to rubble, and cracks have developed in scores of historical buildings across the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan.
Gujarat, including the former princely state of Kutch, is dotted with monuments, some of them more than 500 years old. "Kutch is now history," said Ms Harshad Kumari, convenor of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
She has been struggling to contact colleagues in Bhuj.
The Bhuj museum had a collection of artefacts including a seventh-century statue of Lord Buddha.
"The museum has disappeared, and with that artefacts which are hundreds of years old," said Mr Bindu Manchanda, another expert at INTACH.
Aerial photographs of prosperous Gujarat state near the quake's epicentre show vast tracts of land where nearly all buildings, old and new, have been reduced to rubble.
Ms Kumari said the authorities "probably have not even realised there is a lot of cultural heritage out there - it is also very sad".