After this module you will know what visitors report most at Delhi monuments, what almost nobody reports, and how to spot and report damage yourself. It takes about ten minutes to read.
What does the data say?
Vandalism and graffiti make up 74% of all reports. Littering adds another 16%. That leaves 12 reports for everything else, about one in ten.
Snapshot of all 123 reports as of 31 October 2026. Percentages are rounded. Live figures are on the dashboard.
Humayun's Tomb drew the most reports with 23. Red Fort looks different. Four of its six reports are about littering, not graffiti.
What counts as vandalism, and why does it happen?
Vandalism means deliberately damaging something that is not yours. At a monument that usually means scratching, carving or writing on old stone, brick or plaster.
The reasons vary, but a few come up often. Some people want to mark that they were present. Some think the wall is already old, so one more scratch will not matter. Some simply do not know the rules.
The damage is hard to undo. Carved stone cannot be repaired the way a painted wall can, and cleaning can wear down an old surface too, so conservators have to be careful.
Why does graffiti get reported so often?
Think about what makes a report easy to send. You have to see the damage, photograph it in seconds and feel that it is wrong. Graffiti does all three. A plastic bottle against a tomb wall does too, which is why littering is second.
Now think about damage you cannot read in one second. A slow crack, water seeping into a wall or roots pushing stones apart can look like ordinary old age to a visitor. That kind of damage can be more serious, and it is much harder to photograph and explain.
What is nobody reporting?
Out of 123 reports, 1 was about encroachment and 3 were about plants growing into walls.
Our form has no category for cracks, seepage or structural decay. Those would have to land in Other, which has 5 reports.
Encroachment is a good example of a gap. Parliament was told that about 11% of ASI protected sites, 414 in all, have encroachment. In Delhi, 14 of the 174 centrally protected sites are affected, according to ThePrint's report on the figures. It is a big problem and our visitors barely noticed it.
What does the official record say?
We filed an RTI with ASI for its own data. For all 174 centrally protected monuments in Delhi, across two financial years, ASI recorded one incident of damage. It was a jali at Zafar Mahal in December 2023. One FIR was filed.
Be careful with this comparison. ASI counts incidents it formally records, and we count photos sent by the public. They are not the same measure. What the gap does suggest is that everyday damage mostly never reaches an official count.
The national picture is similar. Parliament was told of 16 vandalism incidents, including theft, at ASI sites between 2020 and 2024. A 2021 parliamentary committee also noted that ASI had no central system for the public to report vandalism.
What can this data not tell you?
Visibility over Severity
These reports reflect only what casual observers notice and document. Slow structural decays like micro-fractures, rising dampness, and seepage go unflagged by untrained eyes, mapping human attention spans rather than true structural risk.
Footfall Bias
Report volume correlates heavily with site accessibility and tourist density. Major ticketed nodes like Humayun's Tomb accumulate high counts due to massive visitor inflows, leaving remote monuments unrepresented.
What can you do this week?
- Look past the obvious. At your next monument visit, find one thing that is not graffiti or litter. Check for cracks, plants growing out of walls and stained patches.
- Photograph it safely. Stay on the visitor path and never touch or climb the structure. Take one wide shot and one close shot.
- Report it. Send it with the monument name and the date. It takes under two minutes and needs no account.
Check yourself
What share of our reports were about vandalism and graffiti?Show answer
74%. Adding littering takes it to 90%.
Which two types of damage made up 90% of reports?Show answer
Vandalism and graffiti, and littering and waste.
Why is slow structural damage rarely reported?Show answer
It is hard to see in a moment and it can look like normal ageing, so it is hard to photograph and explain.
Why can't this data tell us which damage is worst?Show answer
People only report what they notice, and busy sites get more reports. The data shows visibility, not severity.
You see a crack running up a wall at a monument. What do you do?Show answer
Photograph it safely from the visitor path, note the monument and the exact spot, and report it.
Sources and credits
- Our own citizen reports and the ASI RTI reply, both on the dashboard
- Deccan Herald on vandalism incidents at ASI sites, 2020 to 2024
- Lok Sabha reply on vandalism at protected monuments, 2 December 2024
- ThePrint on encroachment at ASI monuments