International Conference on Asian
World Heritage Cities
Dear All,
I am currently attending the International Conference on Asian World Heritage Cities. This conference is a joint effort between the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, UNESCO, the National Institute for Urban Affairs, the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Project, Sabarmati River Front Development Corporation and the Centre for Environmental Planning and Technology.
The conference started yesterday, April 19 and runs until the 21st. The head of Archaeological Survey of India is here, as well as the entire UNESCO New Delhi staff and many others that will have advice for us.
My strategy now involves two things:
1) Getting enough information to make a persuasive argument to Vrindavan municipality to join UNESCO's Indian Heritage Cities Network-this is relatively easy and painless compared to World Heritage Status. It also offers less protection, but we should work one step at a time. The IHCN was created specifically to help cities to protect heritage while simultaneously growing in terms of population and economy. Please see http://www.ihcn.in/ for more information about the Indian Heritage Cities Network. Here is the list of things that UNESCO expects in return from the municipality: http://www.ihcn.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=135&Itemid=176
The NGO Friends of Vrindavan is already a member of this network.
2) People from the National Institute of Urban Affairs (including the director) are here, and have a lot of ideas and best practices to share re: heritage conscious planning.
Representatives from other Indian cities are present and sharing strategies also. I want to find out how to use these, along with UNESCO's development tool kits, to their maximum potential for creating a comprehensive alternative development plan with which we can approach MVDA.
This conference has highlighted once again how arduous it really is to obtain World Heritage Status. Ahmedabad, which is currently poised to be India's first World Heritage City, has been working toward this goal for forty years. Also, it is absolutely necessary that the government be actively involved, from the municipal level upward.Public support is good - it may pressure the governments into doing something - but without their active participation,the World Heritage Status process cannot even get started. UNESCO has suggested that I ask ASI and INTACH for help in nudging Vrindavan municipality in this direction. I am doing what I can on this front. UNESCO has been very supportive and acknowledges the heritage value of Vrindavan and Braj a s a whole - at last night's inaugural speech for the conference, UNESCO Director for India Sri Armoogum Parsuramen mentioned the efforts of cities other than Ahmedabad to obtain World Heritage status, citing Chandigarh, Benares and Vrindavan specifically. This shows that we are indeed on their minds when it comes to the Heritage Status listing.
UNESCO has expressed that if World Heritage Status is sought, that it should be for the Braj region as a whole. This make things even more difficult, as the cultural region of Braj lies within three different Indian states - Rajasthan, Haryana and UP.
Another issue that has been brought up a number of times already is the need to get local people interested in heritage conservation, finding ways in which such efforts will enhance their livelihoods and communicating that to them.
This is an area in which we are still wanting with efforts to encourage sensible development in Vrindavan and Braj as a whole. All development is seen as good development; people base decisions on gossip over who stands to gain the most from a given project or who has taken or offered bribes rather than on the effect the project will have on the Vrindavan they pass on to their children.
For those of you who do not know, communicating about conservation is the key issue I am investigating in my Fulbright research in Vrindavan. It is my hope to help achieve such communication in any way possible both within and without my research project.
Thank you for reading the long letter and DO PLEASE contact me if you feel there is anything in particular you would like me to communicate to the many important agencies at this conference.
Jai Yamuna-ji,
Katie Jo Walter
