Preserving the past

It all started when the Union Ministry of Environment sent a draft regulation to all the states and Union Territories UTs in 1995, highlighting the need for conservation of heritage within municipal boundaries. It aimed at stemming avaricious developers from changing the unique complexion of a city.

The municipal authorities stepped in and identified Mumbai8217;s Marine Drive, Calcutta8217;s 185-year-old Town Hall, Pune8217;s Aga Khan Palace and some old havelis in Delhi8217;s Walled City for their unique contributionto the historical and aesthetic personality of their city.

As against archaeological conservation where antiquity and historical significance are the two major criteria, heritage conservation has a much broader scope. quot;In heritage conservation, antiquity is not the sole criterion and buildings and precincts need not be a century or even half a century old. Thus, Marine Drive in Mumbai is not of archaeological value but is of heritage significance,quot; points Shyam H. K. Chainani, honorary secretary, Bombay Environmental Action Group, which has been spearheading urban heritage conservation movement for the past 21 years.

This goes a long way in protecting structures which are not protected by the ASI or the state archives. Delhi Development Authority has made a small start by announcing annual awards for the best preserved privately-owned monument in different categories. Cash awards of Rs 1 lakh for first place and Rs 50,000 for second place help in the upkeep of these structures. Meanwhile, the Delhichapter of INTACH, a Delhi-based NGO, is in the process of identifying over 1,000 sites in the city to enable the government to pass a legislation to ensure their preservation.

For it is important that the owners of some of the privately-owned structures understand the importance of conservation, for they often make crippling changes to the original structure. According to the new resolution, except for Grade I structures, changes and additions to the original structure are allowed, though these are subject to examination by a multi-disciplinary committee.

Incentives are offered to ensure that the owners do not suffer financial losses because of restrictions placed on sale of property. One of these is the Transferable Development Right TDR for the part of the plot on which a new structure cannot be built, which allows for its sale at the market rate. Residential heritage building are allowed to be used for commercial purposes provided it does not affect its character. The Government has also recommendedthe creation of a repair fund by the municipal commissioner quot;to give monetary help for repairsquot;. This will be help, considering many houses belong to families that were once prosperous but now have no resources to maintain their ancestral homes. They are the ones who generally dispose of their property to unscrupulous builders.

Despite the incentives, apprehensions lurk not only in the minds of property owners, but even the bureaucrats and experts. Though conservation rules were enforced in Mumbai way back in 1991, follow-up in other cities has been rather sluggish. quot;For more than seven years, the heritage laws have operated without complaints in Mumbai where property values are astronomical. Why should other cities have problems?quot; says Chainani.

In Mumbai, the draft heritage list was published on February 20, 1991. So far, the government has notified more than 633 individual buildings, 21 mapped precincts and several more undemarcated precincts in the island city alone. The defence area in Colaba isheritage precinct now and so is the Fort area.

The Andhra Pradesh government has framed heritage regulations for Hyderabad and identified 150 heritage buildings and nine heritage precincts for conservation. Hyderabad was the first city to take steps to protect even natural sites like its rock formation. The West Bengal government, too, moved an amendment bill in November 1997 to the Calcutta Municipal Corporation Act, incorporating provisions of heritage conservation. There is even a proposal to set up a heritage commission for the state, which will be the first of its kind in the country.

The heritage list of Pune is in the final stages after seven years of vacillation. In Nagpur, the progress was equally slow, but the conservationists there sought judicial intervention to get the process started.

Recently, the Bombay High Court gave a directive to the Government of Maharashtra to set up a heritage committee to preserve the picturesque hill station of Mahabaleshwar.

Apart from identifying heritagebuildings, this committee will concentrate on the preservation of the pristine charm of the various scenic spots of this prime hill station. Undoubtedly, heritage conservation comes just in time to nip the indiscretions of unscrupulous builders in the bud.