New Delhi, Jul 8 (IANS): Government institutions like the Archeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts (IGNCA) have taken various steps for the preservation of ancient mural paintings, Parliament was told on Monday.

The ASI regularly attends to the conservation work of mural paintings and ancient folk paintings in its protected monuments, owing to which they are in a good state of preservation, Culture Minister Prahlad Singh Patel told the Lok Sabha in a written reply.

An IGNCA project titled "The Condition of Buddhist Wall Painting Sites in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh (Tribal and Backward Areas)" aimed to develop a laboratory in Ladakh especially for Himalayan material - thangkha and manuscript, with wall painting as a super specialty, he added.

The project's first phase targeted a number of monasteries in the region.

"Documentation of pictorial graffiti of mural paintings or wall paintings of 105 Temples in Baiswara, Uttar Pradesh has also been done by the IGNCA," Patel said.