India Declares 3,676 Monuments Federally Protected

India''s Minister for Culture and Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation Wednesday tabled in the parliament a list of 3,676 historical monuments and sites declared federally protected and of national importance by the Archaeological Survey of India, according to the Press Information Bureau of the Government of India. Kumari Selja submitted the list to the Upper House (the Council of States or Rajya Sabha). The north India state of Uttar Pradesh tops the list with 742 monument/sites from a total of 30 states. She also presented to the Upper House a list of treasured artifacts stolen from various monuments, sites and museums maintained by the ASI protected sites over the last three years since 2009. The western state of Rajasthan tops this list.