Preserving our heritage!
Attached are photographs of a magnificent ancient
Bawadi (stepwell) situated at Vela (Harishchandra) about 12 KMs from the zero
mile, Nagpur. The Bawadi still has good clean water that is being used by the
Church nearby. The structure is ill maintained like most other ancient
structures in India and needs immediate attention from the Archaeological
survey of India.
We in India are so blessed by our forefathers to have
these stepwells! It will be foolish of our generation to let these disappear
without protection and care. All these stepwells should be
declared heritage sites and protected with participation from local
governments. It may be a good option to
involve some corporates to augment resources for the maintenance of the
historically and culturally important water bodies in these times of water
scarcity.
At a broader level, our whole country has thousands of such ancient monuments
from Mahakali caves in Mumbai to Markanda in Vidarbh to Lakshman mandir in Shirpur,
Chattisgarh that require immediate attention for conservation. I think, like ‘Swachcha
Bharat’ and ‘Digital India’, we need one more initiative like ‘Hamari Virasat’
or ‘Hamari Dharohar’ to protect this heritage we are blessed with. If we
request corporates to invest part of their 2% CSR for conservation of heritage
in partnership with the Archeological survey of India, it may go a long way in
preserving this precious, ancient, historical, heritage for our future
generations. All these sites across the country are also great attractions for
tourism into India and can be a good source of livelihood for thousands of countrymen
across India.
Thank you. Jai Hind!
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