Shared responsibility from citizens can only save heritage buildings

Sir,

Have you ever stood by a heritage structure and admired its aesthetic beauty? Looked out for its significance ? or Gauged the health and condition of the structure ?

A very few of you might affirm to all these questions, while many others pass by innumerable heritage structures everyday without even batting an eyelid, thanks to our very busy and programmed lives.

But is it right to ignore our heritage structures, especially those deteriorating due to various factors like external, man-made, biological, natural causes, wars etc.? No, it isn’t.

Heritage structures have from time immemorial stood as a testament to the rich legacy and culture of our land. Therefore, preservation and conservation of these structures becomes our sole responsibility. It’s very crucial to understand that all old structures need to be conserved, the factor that defines why an old structure must be preserved is called its significance. They may possess a historic, artistic/aesthetic, social/spiritual or scientific/research-based significance; understanding this significance is of utmost importance. After understanding the significance and the extent of damage that the structure has undergone, authorities decide on the degree of intervention with the structure, whether it should be indirect conservation, preservation, reproduction, adaptive reuse, reconstruction or restoration.

But as the common crowd would question: Why would one want to save an old structure and spend money on repairing them, when it can be demolished and be replaced by a multi-storey structure with the latest technology? Which is one of the latest topics of debate with a lot of ongoing cases, example regarding the fate of the century-old markets, believed to be two of the earliest planned structures of the country, the Devaraja Market and the Lansdowne building built by the Wadiyars of Mysore, which now lie in a state of danger.

Bringing down a heritage structure doesn’t just reduce the beauty of the landscape it also slices off a great chunk of history and sentiments associated with it. In view of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) too, it is always advisable to renovate/restore/reuse a structure when feasible rather than bringing it to the ground and replacing it with a brand new structure.

Although there are enough bodies to govern the preservation of heritage structures, not much is being done to save the structures that are on the verge of getting destroyed. This being a vast subject with a lot of intricacies it needs a greater sense of shared responsibility from the citizens to save their own culture through these heritage structures.

Voluntary groups joining hands to raise funds and to create awareness about these structures have become the need of the hour. Stricter policies and regulations must be implemented with respect to heritage structures.

With every heritage structure that is brought down, a part of our legacy is erased. Erased forever…

– Prithvi N. Prabhu, Civil Engineering student, Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bengaluru, 25.4.2022

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