Is there hope for Hampi?

The group of monuments, once at the centre of the renowned Vijayanagar Empire, has never been tended with the care and concern it deserves. Now, with the threat of being taken off the 'World Heritage' list, the ruins may well disappear, says GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN, who met UNESCO officials in Paris recently.

INDIA has 22 UNESCO "World Heritage" Sites. Poor, compared with the 582 the world over. Poor, against a much smaller Italy's 29 or Spain's 28 or France's 26. There are many reasons why India's hundreds of cultural and natural spots have not been declared 'World Heritage' Sites. A recent cause has been improper drafting of documents by the Archaeological Survey of India. In what has been an embarrassment to the Government, 11 proposals sent to UNESCO some time ago were rejected, because the paper work was incorrect. Obviously, this indicates sheer callousness.

But what is even more terrible is UNESCO's threat to remove the renowned Hampi group of monuments from the list of 'World Heritage' Sites, because two bridges are being built within the area. An existing road, which will be linked to one of them, will see heavier traffic once the construction is complete. This will mean greater pollution, which is the worst enemy of any old building.

UNESCO's World Heritage Centre specialist, Junko Taniguchi, who has visited Hampi at least twice in the past few months, told me in her Paris office that "the bridges are the main points of concern, because they are coming up right within the protected zone, and completely overwhelm the landscape and setting. Also, vehicular traffic will increase once the bridge is ready, and this road passes through one of the most important gates of Hampi. There have already been instances of trucks running into it. For 10 years, we have been asking the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to deviate the road, but it was never done."

Besides, there is no comprehensive management plan. This is absolutely necessary for a place like Hampi, because it is large and has not only historic structures but also living temples.

Taniguchi says: "There are people residing there, and this complicates matters even further. There is quite a number of illegal encroachments, which have not been controlled despite legislation. The Karnataka Government has said that it will address this. But the first and foremost worry are the bridges.

"The smaller (foot) bridge is coming up right next to the Virupaksha temple. It is also located on top of the Nandi, the worst possible spot. It can be shifted."

UNESCO is obviously peeved. The Director for Asia-Pacific Region of the World Heritage Centre, Minja Yang, told me in Paris that "enough warning is given before a site is delisted. The objective is not to punish or take it off the list: in the first place, if it was on it, it was there because it was considered to have an outstanding universal value to the entire human community. The intention is to work out feasible measures, corrective steps.

"Taniguchi went twice to Hampi and we made recommendations to the Government, but we are yet to receive an official reply from it. Of course, we try in the best way possible that these suggestions are something that the Government can accept. It is not an unilateral imposition of 'you must do this or otherwise'."

A possible answer to the State administration's laidback attitude may lie in the fact that many of the sites in India were included in the 'World Heritage' list very early on, and at that time perhaps the committee that keeps a watch over these historic places was not as strict as it is now. In fact, very few of these have any management plan. Even then, it is surprising that Hampi, with its enormous size, has never had one.

One would like to mention here that about a decade ago, plots of land around the Virupaksha temple were given away to the poor. They, in turn, sold them to developers, who built "illegal" hotels.

However, there is now a move to continuously monitor the status of a site. This will be done by the local authorities, and UNESCO will meet Indian officials by the end of this year to work out a proper management plan. (This is to make sure that a problem is nipped in the bud, and that it is not allowed to worsen in a way that it becomes hard and expensive to deal with it later.)

In fact, Yang avers that one of the grounds why the Indian proposals for additions to the World Heritage list were turned down was that the forms had inadequate information ... certainly pertaining to a management plan. A pity, because there already is so much in India that can be included.

Taniguchi contends that they have also been encouraging the administration to group several monuments, which may be linked historically or culturally or religiously or architecturally, under a single nomination, instead of, say, five nominations. They need not even be in the same geographical area. They can be four corners. This way a lot more of the country can be part of World Heritage.But who cares?

Yang feels that culture is hardly considered to be a priority not just in India, but all over. "People use history in a very political, ideological and manipulative manner. To me that is most unfortunate, because history is no longer palaces and religious edifices, but also rural villages and so on."

This does not mean that every bit of the past has to be preserved. There is a lot of pressure on land in many parts of the globe, but it is necessary to save examples. "I think Europe has understood this. There is growing recognition there that the development of a country or a city requires the physical manifestation of the past," Yang adds.

But people elsewhere must also learn the value of conservation. It is not very easy for a villager in Hampi to realise that one part of the site is as important as the other part on which stands a monument. It is difficult, so it requires education.

Which was never imparted, at least with earnestness. Years ago, I saw Hampi's magnificence stained with betel leaf juice or marred by graffiti. Taniguchi tells me that nothing much has changed since then, and she last went there in February.

Sadly, it is not just the illiterate who are guilty. The well- informed are to blame as well. Taniguchi says they have just got information that the bridges will be operational in August. This is unconfirmed, but the construction is going on. That is definite.

Tragic. What a way to treat a splendid expanse of history.

Post-Script: The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, which has honoured with the 'World Heritage' status just months ago, may well end up like Hampi, if the administration does not check its temptation to tamper with the originality and novelty of the system. Replacing steam locomotives with diesel ones on the section has been criticised.

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