Religious structures damaging heritage sites

Hyderabad: Golconda Fort is very much a part of Hyderabad city and for years and with its brilliant acoustic engineering; exquisite architecture, the fort has tourists by the thousands.

But, the following pictures show that 900-yr-old Golconda Fort being painted with the saffron color.

What does it mean? Does it being turned into a temple like it happened at the site of the Charminar?

According to Narendra Luther, a historian maintain that temple near Charminar had no existence of any sorts until the 1960s.

One of the stones near Charminar was coloured saffron in 1965, and an old woman became the person in-charge of this so-called “shrine”.

The Archeological Survey of India, in a RTI reply, conceded that the Bhagya Laxmi Mandir is a ‘unauthorized’ structure.

Here in case of Golconda Fort, such activities were illegal and could damage the historic monument.

If the authorities do not step in and stop mischief mongers it could see communal flare-ups increasing and possible communal tensions.