IN FOCUS: The Vijaya Vittala Temple at Hampi — Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash

BELLARY: Nalini Thakur's Hampi Heritage Team from the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, which is preparing an Integrated Management Plan (IMP) for the Hampi World Heritage Site, stresses the need for an "effective" law for the systematic protection and management of cultural resources at the Hampi World Heritage Site.

The team feels a law is needed in view of the diversity of heritage resources and the multiplicity of stakeholders and agencies at different levels with jurisdictions that overlap and cause confusion. Another reason is the poorly developed heritage management systems.

"Most of the laws are colonial concepts of administration, which is not democratic," the team says. "In a democratic system, the local community and the numerous agencies can participate."

The team commends the State Government for bringing out the "Hampi World Heritage Area Management Authority Bill, 2002,'' in the wake of Hampi being placed in the List of World Heritage Sites in Danger in 1999 and the UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) ordering monitoring missions.

According to the team, it is right to think of legislation when other governments have only considered regulations. However, although the entire site is to be brought under the law, the site is not clearly defined, it says. Because of this, the team suggests amendments to set up a "Hampi world heritage management area authority," which will function on the basis of the IMP, the team says.

UNESCO team's visit

Herb Stovel and Junko Okahashi, members of a UNESCO team, will visit Hampi on August 3. During their three-day stay, they will review work taken up by the State and Central authorities after Hampi was placed in the list of heritage sites in danger.

Mr. Stovel and Mr. Junko will participate in the second stakeholders' meet at Hotel Mallige on August 4 and hold discussions with officials and elected representatives on the following day.

The draft IMP prepared by Prof. Thakur will be discussed.

The UNESCO representatives will give its opinion whether to go ahead with a controversial project to build a bridge across Tungabhadra, linking Hampi with Anegundi, said to be the "cradle of the Vijaynagar Empire.

UNESCO had expressed concern over the construction of the two-way cable-stayed bridge, and its representatives will give its opinion whether to go ahead with the project or not.

After holding discussions and ascertaining the opinion of the people, a UNESCO team led by Minja Yang, Executive Director, which visited the site in 2003, agreed that the project could go ahead on the condition that a bypass road would be constructed and only light motor vehicles allowed to ply on the bridge. The team had said UNESCO's approval for the completion of the bridge was only a temporary solution. The Government acquired land and formed a bypass road at a cost of over Rs. 3 crores. Mr. Stovel and Mr. Junko will inspect the road. About 70 per cent of the work on the bridge has been completed.

Arvind Srivastav, Deputy Commissioner and Chairman of the Hampi World Heritage Site Management Authority, has said an action plan is being prepared to acquire land around the monuments.

A survey and listing of monuments under the Archaeological Survey of India and the State Department of Archaeology have been taken up, according to him.

Concluded

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