Chhattisgarh: Ancient Ganesha idol damaged by suspected Maoists successfully restored

Dantewada (Chhattisgarh) [India], Feb. 2 (ANI): The famed, six-foot Ganesha idol located on a hill in Dholkal area here, which was found damaged last week, was restored to its original place once again on Wednesday. Since the ancient relic was located at the Naxal affected region, it took four days for the District Administration and Archaeological Department to successfully complete this challenging task. "We have been working here from Saturday. Firstly, we made the idol's platform after which it took two days for us to fix this idol at its original place. The remains of this idol were collected by the Armed Forces," said Prabhat Kumar, an official of Chhattisgarh Archaeological Department to ANI. 25 kilometres away from the main city of Dantewada district, this ancient temple which was established by Chindak Nagvanshis, went missing and was found in a damaged condition downhill on Friday last week. The granite idol, which attracts attention for its presence in an area among dense forests, was found broken into 56 pieces. Cops suspect there is Maoists role in dislodging the ancient idol of the elephant god. According to police, a lot of visitors had been coming to the place to see the idol, which was causing trouble for the Maoists. The incident came to light when few people from Jagdalpur city came to the place to worship the idol. On reaching the place they found the idol missing, following which they took pictures of the empty space, which went viral on social media, resulting in the launch of a massive search operation by the entire Dantewada administration. (ANI)