The concept of Njatuvela, chutti make up, the tales of kavus and many such formless legacies constitute intangible natural and cultural heritage. As these are unstructured they meet the ‘out of sight, out of mind' fate. Unesco has coined the term ‘intangible natural heritage' (INH) for these fragile vestiges and is taking its conservation head on.
INH essentially means traditional knowledge systems related to natural heritage. The earliest Asian documentation of Traditional Knowledge (TK) about natural heritage is in Kerala itself: Hortus Malabaricus, says B. Venugopal, Director, National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), New Delhi.
Festival
NMNH recently conducted the ‘Festival of Museums and Intangible Natural Heritage' at Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit, Kalady.
B. Venugopal hails from Manickamangalam near Kalady.
In charge of the Regional Museums of Natural History in Mysore, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Sawai Madhopur and Gangtok, he is on the executive board of the International Council of Museums' Committee on Collections and Museums of Natural History. He is an authority on Museum Education, Heritage Interpretation, and Accessibility studies.
Here are excerpts from an interview with him.
How would you sum up the festival at Kalady?
Bringing intangible heritage as part of definition of museums is only a recent entry. The intangible component of heritage is least understood. There needs to be many programmes in this direction and the Kalady festival may be considered as a beginning.
What are the follow up programmes in your agenda?
The Kalady Festival has enlisted the interest of many including the local elected representatives who have shown interest to continue with such programmes. A national level exhibition/ seminar on heritage in Muziris Heritage Project Site in December 2011 is in the offing. We plan to have the Kalady Festival every year in which NMNH and SSUS Kalady are partners. We would like to have more regional festivals on the subject and are planning follow up festivals in Jodhpur and in Bhubaneswar.
What is the roadmap for the future in this field?
India is a pioneer in environmental awareness. The work on Bishnoi communities in Rajasthan and Ashokan edicts are proof. Here it is important to mention that Ms. Indira Gandhi was the only non-local Head of State who attended the first ever world programme on environment in Stockholm in 1972. In fact her interest led to the establishment of NMNH. I envisage tremendous scope for Natural History Museums in every state in India as environment has become a house hold name.
Which intangible natural heritages of our country have been documented?
The earliest Asian documentation of Traditional Knowledge (TK) about natural heritage is in Kerala itself: Hortus Malabaricus. The only Museum related to Hortus Malabaricus is established in the NMNH's Southern Regional office in Mysore. Even though there are many agencies involved in work on Hortus Malabaricus, these efforts are not focused. For example, the original Herbarium collected by Dr C. R Suresh and Dr Manilal as part of the Hortus Malabaricus project is still not utilised in Calicut University.
I may also mention here that the work of NMNH in Hortus Malabaricus has led to the discovery of another rare manuscript on natural heritage, Jardin de Lorixa (about flora of Orissa) for which there is only one original manuscript in the world. The former Minister for Environment and Forests, had recently taken the initiative to get a digital copy of the same from the Natural History Museum Paris.
You have founded museums. What does it entail?
I was appointed as the first officer-in-charge when the first Regional Museum of Natural History was started in Mysore. Later the same happened with the second one in Bhopal.
Museum Studies is a dynamic subject. It is essential to train the museum staff on a regular basis because the methods of museum curating undergo steady changes.
Pertaining to Kerala what more should be done to perpetuate traditional knowledge?
Institutional mechanism (like Government, Universities etc) may give due recognition to the nascent subject of Intangible Heritage. Taking advantage of the availability of unique TK/ IH such as ayurveda, njattuvela, spices heritage, the Government. of Kerala can perhaps establish a Centre for Intangible Heritage.
