School children may get to actually visit the heritage monuments they read about instead of recreating an image of them within the walls of the classroom. The State government plans to introduce an appreciation program on heritage to support the school curriculum so that students get better exposure to the heritage and culture of Karnataka.
Secretary to Department of Kannada Culture and Information Shalini Rajneesh said that they had discussed the matter with the Education Department and hope to implement the program by the next year. “The students may be taken to one nearby heritage site where audio/video films regarding the site will be shown to educate them. CDs or booklets regarding other sites too will be provided to them,” she said at an international symposium on ‘Urban futures’ on Tuesday.
At present, there are 772 protected monuments and 630 Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) protected sites/monuments in Karnataka. The process of documenting them has been ongoing for three years. Two hundred heritage buildings have been documented in Mysuru alone.
As many as 20 heritage cities have been identified in Karnataka. Six places — Mysore, Kittur, Srirangapatna, Bidar, Gulbarga and Bijapur — were declared as heritage sites in 2004. In the 2012-13 budget, the State government declared 14 places, including Bengaluru, as heritage cities.
There are several parts of the city, which have heritage footprints, even though it has transformed drastically since it was formed nearly 500 years ago, said Pankaj Modi, a conservation architect and co-ordinator of Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).
He said that Bengaluru, formed in 1537, has footprints of distinct features such as the fort built during the time of Kempe Gowda and the cantonment area. Trade and economic zones, socio-cultural roots, residential typology, among other characteristics, can be identified in certain zones of the city even now. He pointed out the distinct plan of Whitefield, and Basavanagudi and Malleswaram, which were formed with specific cultural identities that continue to exist even today.
