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| Royal Dogra heritage survived three dozen blazes in 60 years | | Expert: involve trained professionals only | | EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, Sept 19: Saying the royal Dogra heritage buildings survived at least three dozen incidents of fire in last 60 years, renowned heritage conservation and restoration expert has called for management of heritage buildings only by trained professionals.
Daughter of the soil, Aparna Tandon, currently on an international assignment in Italy, underscored the need to build capacity for heritage preservation and management and spreading awareness among the masses about the preservation of art and cultural heritage.
“We could benefit from cultural heritage only if we train people in the state to effectively preserve and manage heritage assets”, she said.
"The existing heritage management structures desperately need trained personnel and increased public participation”, she said adding there is a lot of space for all types of training programmes of various private institutes to step in and contribute to the development of this workforce.
Aparna was delivering a lecture on "Significance, Use and Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Jammu and Kashmir" organized by the Centre for Adult, Continuing Education & Extension (CACE&E), University of Jammu. A native of Jammu Tandon is Project Specialist, International Center for the Study of the Preservation & Restoration of Cultural Property (ICCROM), Rome, Italy.
Saying that the most powerful threat to cultural heritage in J&K is the sheer lack of capacity to preserve and manage cultural heritage assets, she said that though there are competing demands and limited resources, it is often argued that the state is going through conflict and has limited resources.
Stressing the need to develop an inclusive approach to conservation that respects diversity, she said that approach needed to go beyond narrow and sectarian view of heritage.
Asserting that one of the biggest threats to heritage is unplanned development, she expressed her concerns over displaced communities, disappearing sacred groves, dying art forms and endangered oral histories adding not all development is good. She said in practice everyday we see, increasing negative impacts of development such as massive urbanization, displacement of communities, disappearing sacred groves and reserves, dying art forms and endangered oral histories.
She said there are also sources of risk such as fire which escalate in face of neglect and inadequate protection. Mubarak Mandi is a case in point and the historic city center has suffered 36 major minor incidents of fire since 1947.
Recalling shared heritage and her efforts to preserve cultural heritage as the Curator-Conservator at the Amar Mahal Museum and Library in Jammu in northern India from 1998 to 2004, she said they received an over whelming response to a kite festival organized in the Amar Mahal Museum's lawns.
The thought provoking lecture explored some key questions, issues and challenges in heritage conservation that are by no means unique to J&K and are relevant all over the world. |
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