Hyderabad: Charminar, the four century old representative building of the history and culture of Hyderabad, is in danger of giving way the pressures all around it.
With rainy season only about six weeks away, what would be its situation? Would its lime and mortar plaster continue to come away, may be from other minarets or the structure itself? Could there be any other danger lurking which the conservation experts have not been able to foresee? How about the vagaries of Nature that cannot be foreseen or pre-assessed?
The historic monument has survived for 428 years in spite of fluctuations of nature and rapid urbanisation, especially in the last about half a century. The new dangers in the whole game are heavy vehicular traffic, repeated digging of ground around the structure for various reasons such as laying and re-laying of roads, pipelines, electrical wires and unchecked construction activity in its vicinity.
The most worrisome factor is the absence of will at various Central and State government levels to conserve the globally know structure and its surroundings.
Telangana State Chief Minister Mr K Chandrasekhar Rao has shown hardly any interest in conserving Charminar though it figures along with Kakatiya architecture in the government logo.
Mr G S V Suryanarayana Murthy, a conservation architect who has been working on Hyderabad’s architectural heritage for the last about two decades, believes that unless the government takes a comprehensive view of Charminar and its surrounding the danger to the structure will remain. Sporadic damage control work cannot be the solution, he added.
According to sources the State government started looking into the Charminar problem seriously about two decades ago. The government is sitting on a pile of information it has gathered through various agencies since it visualised the Charminar Pedestrianisation Project some 20 years ago. The biggest hurdle for its complete implementation is resistance from local merchants and the politicians. “For these two sets of people their preference is to save the sources of income, not conserve Charminar. They do not know that their businesses are flourishing because of Charminar and the historic and cultural background it represents,” an expert who has been working in the area said.
There are shops and buildings that have to be demolished if one wishes to save Charminar. But those structures cannot be touched because of the ‘political’ pressure. Though the government has been able to control the heavy vehicular traffic, including public transport, it is still a long way from achieving a reasonable level of ban.
The state government had roped in National Geographical Research Institute (NGRI) to undertake a survey. The NGRI carried out the survey and submitted its report which among other things focussed on the importance of controlling the heavy traffic movement and use of big construction and other machinery. The government could implement the recommendations in the report only partially.
According to Murthy the plaster which came off from one of the minarets recently is quite substantial and demands immediate attention and repair. With rainy season round the corner the repair work has to begin as early as possible.
He also believes that the historic Charminar should not be viewed as a single structure. It should be seen as the centre piece in the heritage structures and bazaars around it. The restoration plan should take into consideration all these elements and start the work as soon as possible. “The government should work on the plan to get Charminar as a World Heritage Site. Only then it can be saved properly. No patch work will help in conserving Charminar for long years,” he said.