As in the cities such as Kolkata, Chennai and Mumbai, in Bengaluru in addition to classified heritage structures, there are hundreds of government and privately owned old structures like bungalows, hostels, clubs and others including palaces, forts or temples. Some of them are almost like monuments unclassified and under non monument-heritage category. You will be shocked to know that they are all disappearing fast like morning dew. Reason: Urban madness, space crunch, devoid of interest to preserve our history, culture and ethos topped by the government officials' apathy and ubiquitous redtapism.
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| Residency road / st.Marks road intersection business-standard.com |
Historians, heritage lovers, prominent citizens of this city have been crying hoarse for decades about the loss of amazing old buildings that once adorned the cityscape; They crumple under our very nose, heritage lovers can only stand aghast grief-stricken over them, no matter whichever party comes to power either in the state of Karnataka or elsewhere no concrete action is to be taken by the ruling party. In the midst of profusion of bad news about the slowly disappearing heritage sites in Bengaluru, Mysuru and elsewhere the dedicated effort to save the HVN bungalow, once the residence of H V Nanjundaiah, the founder-president of the Kannada Sahitya Parishat in 2021 ought to be appreciated. .
Negligence of monuments and heritage sites by the officials is not confined to Karnataka alone In the neighboring state of Tamil Nadu the HR & CE, a government department in charge of Hindu temples, not only mismanages the ancient temples and diverts the temple income for other purposes, but also fails to carry out periodic maintenance If they do carry out the repairs, the contractors use substandard materials for the structures under repair and you may soon see cracks developing in the repaired portion. A good example is the recent (August 5, 2023) fall of a long section of sunshade from the first fier of the East Gopuram at the most popular Sri Ranganathar temple, Srirangam. The Madras terrace portion on the gopura in other parts above the entrance-exit gate has damaged wooden rafters that are being supported by wooden props from casuarina trees. No steel props are used. If portion under repair is improperly propped up, it will spell disaster in the future.
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| Erumbeeswarar Temple in Thiruverumburen.wikipedia.or |
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| Malai Kovil near Tiruchirappallifirstpost.com |
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| 7th -8th CE .Malai Kovil near Tiruchirappalli firstpost.com |
Above images: Erumbeeswarar Temple dedicated to god Shiva in Thiruverumbur near Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu can be taken as yet another example of official negligence. A protected monument by the Archaeological Survey of India and managed by the TN Govt's HR & CE there is no continuity in the countless Chola stone inscriptions because when the renovation took place several years back, the stones with inscriptions were removed and misplaced wrongly. The gravalam path around the hill is not being properly managed. Close to the monuments (discarding the legal limit of 300 meter radius from the site), there are buildings,, houses, etc and last year the Madurai branch of Madras High Court asked the ASI & HR & CE to remove the encroachment and take steps to renovate the temple.
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| Missing monuments of ASI.examrace.com |
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| Vanishing Indian monuments. optimizeias.com |
In the case of Bangalore city, a chaotic situation arose roughly 18 years ago when the then S.M. Krishna government dissolved the Bangalore Urban Arts Commission (BUAC). It was equal to opening the Pandora's box. Till then buildings coming up on the important roads had to get a licence as per BUAC’s guidelines.
With the BUAC guidelines having been made toothless and thrown into the garbage, there had been steady demolition of non-heritage structures and the heavy duty cranes with wrecking ball moved in and had started working overtime to level the places where had stood the historical buildings that can never be resurrected. With their loss, the local history is buried deep in the huge mounds of trash.
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| quotemaster.org |
After the 2014 amendment to the Companies Act that made ‘protection of national heritage’ a legitimate activity under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Bengaluru two government-owned heritage buildings were restored back to old glory.
The subsequent regressive amendment of the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act (or AMASR Act) to allow public infrastructure to be built within 100 metres of protected monuments became retrograde and would negate the advantages of CSR acts. The silverline is the BDA's revised master plan put forward in 2017 to save the remaining heritage structures including the ones owned by them
There are countless buildings on Avenue Road and Commercial Street, and in Basavanagudi, Malleswaram and Richmond Town that need to be saved as they are for a long time languishing and becoming structurally weak.
Saving heritage buildings is not a roadblock to progress and modernity in urban spaces. They have not only potential economic value, but also are inherent to the ethos of the cities. Heritage tourism is a money spinning business in the last one decade and is gaining currency in some historic cities . It increases the value of the space. The important advantages are saving the old structures from destruction and carefully putting them to reuse instead of building a new structure.
States like W. Bengal, Kerala, Pondicherry and recently Tamil Nadu are charting out heritage corridors and trying to save the dying structures with a view to reusing them. This way they save money and retain the old-styled buildings. In many cities tourists have understood the value of guided heritage walks which are quite educative.
Proper planning and adequate funding from the government will help a lot to give a new lease of life to the old buildings. With thousands of heritage and historical sites across the country, India has a vast scope for tourism and it can be exploited by focusing on proper maintenance, infrastructure development, cleanliness and clean presentation of tourists spots.
With new mushrooming new buildings in the place of old ones, , Bengaluru is struggling to protect its heritage and its old charm.
The following are some of the structures in Bengaluru that have been lost in the past
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| 1908 -2006. Cash Pharmacyceekam.wordpress.com |
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| Residency road / st.Marks road intersection business-standard.com |
Above image: A landmark building at the Residency road / st.Marks road intersection. Nearly 100 years old Cash Pharmacy was pulled down in the past and here one could get all kinds of medicine including life-saving drugs unavailable elsewhere in the City. Its unusual elevation made it stand out from the regular tiled-roof buildings around and a wooden facia and trellis ran around the first floor verandah.
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| Govt. Tamil Higher Primary School, Bengaluru. .hindustantimes.com/ |
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| Govt. Tamil Higher Primary School, Bengaluru. newindianexpress.com |
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| Murphy Town Public library, Bengaluru. indiatimes.com |
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| an old building in Bengaluru. scroll.in |
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| The Victoria Hotel, Bengaluru. thenewsminute.com |
The Victoria Hotel, once a famous restaurant was a typical old Bangalore bungalow with high roofs, monkey-top windows, a pointed hood and canopy of clay tiles over a window,etc with typical fine pieces of colonial furniture. It was almost like a British House....................
Protection of heritage buildings would help the city retain its past glory world-class cities like Singapore, New York, London, etc are modern but without losing their past identity. Old structures in a new modern space enhance the character of the city. Already cities like Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai are trying hard to protect the old structures and have enforced regulations to protect them under the ambit of strict laws. It will promote cultural tourism in the future.
https://ceekam.wordpress.com/2006/09/12/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erumbeeswarar_Temple
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/65408899.cm
https://optimizeias.com/50-centrally-protected-monuments-missing/
