The theft of a massive 400 years old cannon weighing 3,500kg from the historic Narwar Fort in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district has started a huge search that involves the army and police. The antique artillery piece disappeared from the 16th-century fort on July 15, prompting a joint investigation by the Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan Police.
After intelligence clearly pointed to the possibility of the Howard Cannon’s being transferred to the nearby Gavda Meena village in the Karauli district of Rajasthan, the search has now been shifted to the area that is almost a quarter of a century away from the fort. Police units carrying JCB machines have excavated various sites and experts from Bharatpur have arrived to install a special metal detector to search below ground for the missing artifact.
All areas of fresh disturbance, officials say, are being looked into as investigators work quickly to salvage the cannon before it can fall into the institutionalised antiquities trade.
The robbery has also revealed huge security flaws at Narwar Fort. The two guards whose shift it was to keep watch at night are believed to have been off duty when the monument was stolen, though officials say they have six on duty in fact. In questioning, one of the guards admits that had he been there, without any basic facilities like lighting, torches and security equipment, he would not have been able to prevent the theft itself.
Now, authorities are attempting to figure out how the thieves were able to get hold of a 3.5-tonne cannon and steal it from a fort air-controlled base perched on a steep 3,000-foot hill. A large number of issues relating to the protection of India’s historical monuments and valuable cultural heritage have come to the fore due to the incident.