LAUSR

India is generally accepted as a treasure trove of many thousands of built heritage sites. If one looks for a list of such sites with its geographical location and some basic identificatory description, unfortunately there is none, except for the ones protected by the Government authorities. Today with most geospatial databases being on digital platform, it is extremely important to recognize and also include the unprotected built heritage sites. Doing this is the need for the hour, in light of dramatic changes to the landscape caused by developmental activities that are insensitive to cultural heritage. This article looks in detail at the extent of digital information available on the location of Indian monuments (both protected and unprotected), the challenges in extracting and bringing it into a geospatial platform with the case study of Arasibidi in north Karnataka, India.