Journalism of Courage
While it is frequently heard that historic monuments in and around the city are left to the mercy of nature rather than to the saving graces of the government and public,one seldom gets to hear about them being restored slowly and systematically. This is the tale of the fort of Ghangad. Having endured indifference from all possible quarters,the fort of Ghangad,is slowly finding a way to stand up and gather its rightful place in history. While the process will be long and slow,the fact that these changes are coming about is a positive story to celebrate.
Climbing the fort in the rains was not easy for people, informs Dattatreya Kapadi,a localite from the base village of Bhamburde,as he takes a long swig from a bottle of cold water. No one really cares a lot about the fort. The fort is just a monument that puts the village on the map. It used to be a beautiful place earlier,but nothing has been ever done to maintain it. The water tanks which provide clean fresh and cool water round the year are dirty and the walls have been broken. Why would anyone care? he asks.
Twenty-five members of the group visited the fort on Sunday and as a first step towards the restoration,installed a ladder on top so that people could climb up easily and even cleaned out the tank. A four feet thick layer of dirt,garbage and silt,is what has accumulated over the years there. Can you believe it? We not only went into the tank,but also cleaned it out thoroughly by scraping away the vegetation that had grown on the water as well as the tank walls and even removed the stones that were surrounding it. Close to 500 pots of dirt was removed from the tank, says Vinayak Khot,another member.
Kshirsagar estimates that all the repairs would take them around two-and-a-half years and will cost them Rs 10 lakhs. There are four tanks on top of the fort,of which two are in a terrible state. We have almost cleaned out one tank. Before monsoon we hope to clean all four tanks as the first phase of the restoration work, he says.
