The Hindu : National conservation structure formed

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 28, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

National conservation structure formed

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, MARCH 27. An Indo-Australian workshop to discuss the development of a national conservation charter ended here today with the participants releasing a structure for the final formulation of the charter.

"To develop the charter itself will take much longer. But we have arrived at a structure that would be used for formulating the charter. This will give an idea of what the final charter would look like - what areas it would touch on,'' said architect A.G.Krishna Menon who was involved in the workshop organised as part of collaborative development initiative between AusHeritage and Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage. The proposed structure of the charter includes defining and identifying the vision statement, the context, conservation principles, its practises and process and implementation mechanisms and methods. It would also discuss the existing legal provisions and amendments to the same.

"We need to evolve a charter that takes into account Indian conditions. And it is also important to look at not only monumental heritage but also cultural, intangible and civic heritage. We looked at the Indian conditions and did a case study on the heritage sites of Qutub Minar and Humayun's Tomb to understand the complexities,'' said Prof. Menon.

This "roadmap'' will help in the drafting of the final charter and INTACH hopes to release a preliminary draft charter in November 2004, when the organisation will celebrate its 20th anniversary. The draft charter will be sent to the various INTACH chapters for discussion. Interestingly, the organisation proposes to avail the advantages of Internet and would be posting a copy on the Web. "In that way, people all over the world can give their comments and advise us. We will have the advantage of a wide research base,'' said Prof. Menon.

"We will be speaking to our Australian experts here and use their feedback. The Burra Conservation Charter that has been formulated by them is the first initiative that questions the Euro-Centric point of view. The final formulation of the charter is still a huge task,'' said INTACH chairman, S.K. Misra.

For the future, AusHeritage is planning more joint venture with INTACH. "We are trying to restore one of the earthquake- damaged museum in Bhuj. And we have also planned other capacity-building initiatives,'' said chairman AusHeritage, Vinod Daniel.

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