Reports that the idol wing of the Criminal Investigation Department in Tamil Nadu has initiated the process of retrieving six Chola-era idols from the United States of America has once again brought attention to the issue of Indian historical artefacts that have been illegally transported to other countries.
According to a recent reply by the Union government in the Lok Sabha, the US accounted for the largest number of recoveries of stolen Indian idols and heritage objects since 2014 under the National Mission on Monuments and Antiquities (NMMA).
In the reply, the Union Minister of Culture and Tourism G Kishan