When it comes to listed heritage buildings, no serious attention is paid to their periodic repairs and proper maintenance by the state department in charge of historical and heritage buildings. In many Indian states the same status quo prevails and officials more often than not comes up with one common excuse: fund crunch. Consequently majority of such old structure wilt under age with no periodic care and ultimately become so damaged resurrection becomes a challenge. The heritage city of Mysuru already lost it sobriquet ''Heritage City'' as the city loses old structures one by one.
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| Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion,Mysuru.thehindu.com |
According to District Heritage Sub-Committee, 65 heritage structures that are in a precarious state need urgent intervention to save them. If not done on right time, heritage lovers have to be content with rejoice by only looking at their pictures. Every year the onset of SW Monsoon further weakens them. Experts are crying hoarse to get funds to save the heritage structures in Mysuru ahead of monsoon.
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| Vasanth Mahal, Mysuru starofmysore.com |
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| Vasanth Mahal, Mysuru starofmysore.com |
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| Vasanth Mahal (1842), Mysuru starofmysore.com |
The members of the District Conservation Sub Committee after inspecting a number of heritage structures of the city before the recent elections listed the three palaces – Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion, Lalitha Mahal Hotel and Vasanth Mahal.The former houses the folklore museum and the latter has the teachers’ training institute. The members were of the opinion that these palaces need ''urgent attention’’.The committee reported that Vasanth Mahal (built on a plot of 36 acres), besides conservation, needed urgent electrical rewiring and repairs. The iconic Lalitha Mahal Palace also need serious attention.
For some time there has been a serious concern over the fate of heritage buildings in Mysuru for the simple reason that they are not in good condition owing to official apathy, negligence and lack of maintenance. A member of INTACH remarked that if repairs of the three palaces were not taken on a priority basis, the structure would face further damages during the monsoon.season. It is obvious additional damage would render them structurally weak.
Among the 500 plus heritage buildings in Musuru, 139 are in the list of protected monuments. Unfortunately, of them 60 to 65 buildings, in the absence of proper care and upkeep, are pushed to a precarious state. The only remedy is urgent intervention with adequate funds to save buildings like the Jayalakshmi Vilas Mansion for the posterity.
The following heritage structures need urgent conservation or atleast major repairs pretty soon. Devaraja Market, Lansdowne Building -one of the major landmarks in the bazaar area of the city, the Silver Jubilee Clock Tower that has developed cracks, the Mahajara’s College, Yuvaraja’s College, Maharani’s Science College – (a small portion collapsed in the past) last year and the Oriental Research Institute (that hoses rare palm-leaf manuscripts). The last one leakes during rains and has to be repaired soon.
In the present political scenarios infrastructure development, poverty alleviation or creation of employment and agriculture production get more priority than other fields related to historical buildings, monuments and their conversation, additional research in archaeology, arts, culture, etc. To avoid religating the local culture to the backstage, the government must pay serious attention to effective conservation strategies to save the dying heritages which symbolize our culture, history and identity. Will the new government led by the Congress Party allot funds and save the slowly heritage buildings that represent the culture and ethos of Mysuru.
