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The Rediff Special

ASI plans amphitheatre inside Khajuraho complex

Flouting its own guidelines, the Archaeological Survey of India plans to build an amphitheatre close to the Chitragupta temple in the premises of the western group of temples at Khajuraho to stage the popular annual cultural festival.

A senior ASI archaeologist said the tourism departments of both the central government and Madhya Pradesh want the venue of the Khajuraho Festival to be shifted inside the temple complex.

The festival, which is held every March, attracts thousands of foreign tourists. The illuminated temples in the backdrop will give a better view, the ASI official said.

But the plan contravenes the Government of India's gazette notification of 1992 banning any construction within 100 metres of monuments protected under the ASI Act.

The amphitheatre is being built to organise cultural shows during the Khajuraho Millennium Festival. The one-year festival is being organised to commemorate 1,000 years of the temple complex.

"Construction of the amphitheatre will not only defeat the move that began in the 1980s to shift the Khajuraho Festival out of the temple premises, but will also be detrimental to the conservation of the monuments, said B M Pandey, a retired director of the ASI.

"This act is unpardonable and should be immediately abandoned," he said.

The Khajuraho Festival was being organised within the premises of the western group of temples, but was shifted out in the 1980s for fear that the temples would get damaged.

Conservationists say the amphitheatre is being built under pressure from the tourism and hotel lobbies. "They are the people who have no love for monuments. They only know how to exploit them commercially," Pandey said.

"The tourism lobby terms archaeologists 'outdated', but they are the ones who conserve monuments for posterity," he pointed out.

A conservationist working with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage at Khajuraho said, "Such an amphitheatre inside the premises will hurt Khajuraho's status as a World Heritage Site."

He said INTACH, which is doing a study on the conservation of the monuments and the ecology around them, wanted some reports from the ASI, but despite several reminders the ASI has not released them.

Asked about this, the ASI official said, "There must be some communication gap. As soon as we receive the request, we will provide them with the information."

The ASI is waiting for the INTACH report and would like to implement the trust's suggestions on conserving the ecology of the site, he added.

Khajuraho, the 240th World Heritage Site, is famous for its erotic carvings. The temples were built by the Chandela dynasty in the 10th and 11th centuries.

Asked about the danger to the temples from aircraft flying overhead while landing or taking off from the nearby airport, Pandey said despite several reminders since 1977, the Union civil aviation ministry has not diverted the flight path.

But the ASI official, quoting a study by the National Physical Laboratory, New Delhi, said the intensity of the vibrations caused in the temples by aircraft flying overhead is minimal and will not affect the structures.

Conservationists, however, blame the seepage of rainwater in many of the temples on the vibrations caused by low-flying aircraft.

The ASI official said 95 per cent of the leaks in the western group of temples have been arrested during restoration. "The leaks in the eastern group will be looked into soon", he promised.

Conservationists are also upset with the ASI's move to introduce light-and-sound shows in the temple premises. Terming them unnecessary, Pandey warned that such shows would expose the monuments to grave danger. Experts working with the INTACH project agreed.

Pandey recalled that during his tenure as superintending archaeologist at Bhopal in 1977, he had opposed illumination of the monuments. "What is the need? People can enjoy the beauty of the statues in the day," he argued.

The iron scaffolding of the temples erected during the restoration work has also damaged many statues, the INTACH conservationist claimed.

But the ASI official said utmost care was being taken in the restoration work. Iron scaffoldings are easier to erect than bamboo scaffoldings, he explained.

UNI

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