TIMES CITY THE TIMES OF INDIA, AHMEDABAD | MONDAY, JULY 10, 2017
ECOLOGICAL MIRACLE: MAKING DETHALI TOURIST
YOURE FUTURE OF CITYS HISTORY
Unescos World Heritage City Inscription
Brings Honour, More Responsibilities
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
T
he inscription of
5.34 sq km area of
Ahmedabads
Walled City by Un-
esco as the coun-
trys first World Heritage
City filled Amdavadis and
people across the country
with tremendous pride and
joy. This is the third world
heritage inscription from
Gujarat after Champaner-
Pavagadh and Ranki Vav in
Patan.
But the announcement
also brings with it a pro-
found sense of responsibil-
ity and duty upon the mu-
nicipal body and Amadvadis
to collaborate and conserve
the precious heritage. On
Saturday, Unescos
think-tank Interna-
tional Council on
Monuments and
Sites (ICOMOS),
which had inspect-
ed Ahmedabads
Walled City in Sep-
tember last year,
had differed
Ahmedabads in-
scription while
raising concerns on conser-
vation and management
plan and had even offered
Ahmedabad help.
The selection
has put positive
pressure on city
administrators to
perform better. The
heritage tag is not
permanent.
Now, the civic
administration must
expedite development
plans for the old city.
Abhay Mangaldas |
FOUNDER-DIRECTOR, HOUSE
OF MG
Drugs destroy life of
addicts, ruin their families overdrive, plant 1,000 saplings
Former Junkies
Tell Their
Recovery
Stories
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
Ahmedabad: Vinay Oza (na-
me changed), an engineering
student, believed that he could
never live without brown su-
gar. Over the years, he tried all
imaginable natural and synt-
hetic psychotropic substan-
ces.
One fine day, I woke up to
the realization of how I was ru-
ining my life and how it was af-
fecting my family and friends.
Leaving that life was not easy
but with the support of well-
wishers and counsellors at Na-
ya Jeevan de-addiction centre,
I found a new life, he said, in
FRIENDLY FOR WINGED VISITORS! | 4
Times View
O ver the years, Ahmedabad has
earned a reputation of being a
communally polarized city. The
city has secured the World
Heritage site status largely due to
its unique architecture which has
a strong mix of Hindu-Islamic
influences. Its time for all
Amdavadis to emulate the
architecture and weave together a
harmonious fabric to reclaim the
glory of the city.
ICOMOS in its presenta-
tion had said, While the
key monuments are ade-
quately protected, ICOMOS
considers that there are
many buildings that make
citys distinctive forms of
pol and puras are vul-
nerable
and are
not yet
sufficiently
d o c u -
mented.
ICOMOS
demanded
implemen-
tation of
local area plan, heritage
conservation plan and visi-
tors plan on Saturday.
While mentioning a dead-
It is a dream come
true. Let us join
hands to conserve
the heritage which
the world has
acknowledged, and
let us make this a
beautiful place
which draws people
from across the
globe
B V Doshi |
FOUNDER, VASTU
SHILP FOUNDATION
42 societies go on green
Ride for a Cause was organized by the Narcotics Control Bureau
front of over 1,000 people at Sa-
barmati riverfront on Sunday
morning.
Oza was among the four yo-
uths who decided to come and
share their lifes stories. They
had fallen into bad company
and believed that taking drugs
was part of being cool. But af-
ter some time, they realized
that that road of drugs led to
nowhere. These youths are al-
so reaching out to other ad-
line of 2019, ICOMOS de-
manded a detailed documen-
tation on the pols, a conser-
vation plan for the wooden
havelis, completion and im-
plementation of key compo-
nents of management sys-
tem, revision of boundary
and buffer zone to connect
the city to the river and a
heritage impact assessment
with new buildings coming
up in the vicinity that can
affect the authenticity and
integrity of the world herit-
age city.
However, municipal com-
missioner Mukesh Kumar
claimed that with the special
purpose vehicle for heritage
projects in place, more funds
in the form of PPP and CSR
can be used for protection of
dilapidated properties.
Sahitya Akademi winner
Esther David told TOI, By
receiving this honour, we as
a city have the responsibil-
ity of looking after it. I feel
the Walled City needs to be
spruced up a little as visi-
tors may now stream in. But
more important is that citi-
zens and municipal author-
ity should jointly organize
events to take the Walled
City to its people and the
country and bring back the
glory of the Walled City.
A city is made by citizens
and belongs to all citizens.
When every citizen loves
the city and cares for
it, we will truly take our
great legacy to the next
generation.
Umang
Hutheesing
| FOUNDER
PRESIDENT,
HUTHEESING
HERITAGE
FOUNDATION
Yogesh Chawda
dicts and helping them shun
drugs.
Bike-a-Thon: Ride for a
Cause, organized by the zonal
unit of Narcotics Control Bu-
reau (NCB), Wajra-o-Force,
and other organizations, saw
participation by around 1,000
bikers and 200 other volunte-
ers who started from the Sa-
barmati riverfront behind
NID at 7 am on Sunday and en-
ded the event at 10 am. City ma-
CULPRITS PROJECTED DALITS AS MUSLIM; YOU
Manek Nath temple
Celebration at Desai ni Pol
Fireworks over Kankaria lake
Symphony of faiths heralds triumph
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
I
t was a citizens festival! The
Ahmedabad Municipal Corpo-
ration (AMC) and other institu-
tions celebrated the inscription of
the Walled City as a World Herit-
age City, on Saturday night.
Mayor Gautam Shah offered
prayers at the Bhadra Kali tem-
ple on Sunday and said that peo-
ples heritage had been recog-
nized. The AMC team celebrated
at the AMC office after which of-
ficials and citizens participated
in a public event on the Kankaria
lakefront.
AMC officials said that the civ-
Ellisbridge
yor Gautam Shah and Hari
Om Gandhi, zonal director,
NCB, had flagged off the event.
Gandhi said that the pur-
pose of the initiative was to
create positive peer pressure.
We are already working on
the drug menace from the
supply side by nabbing the car-
riers and suppliers. But we al-
so want to curb the demand si-
de by creating awareness abo-
ut the ill-effects of contraband.
Hence, fortnight-long activiti-
es were planned to spread awa-
reness, he said.
Gandhi further said that
the Healthy Campus initiative
of the NCB and various colle-
ges are already promoting he-
althy living on and off campu-
ses.
During the fortnight, vo-
lunteers had reached out to
more than 50,000 individuals
through seminars, campus vi-
sits, road shows and pledge ce-
remonies.
WERE FERRYING BEEF, SAYS TRANSCRIPT | 4
Pics: Yogesh Chawda
Sarkhej Roza
Bhadra Kali temple
Walled City ecstatic, seeks
conservation push
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
I
t was a moment of great pride
for thousands of citizens of
traditional pols of the city on
Saturday night when the Walled
City of Ahmedabad was in-
scribed as a Unesco World Herit-
age City for its unique architec-
ture, way of life, and 600 years of
history interspersed with multi-
ple rulers and religions, and en-
riched by the catalysis of con-
stant social change.
Desai ni Pol in Khadia cele-
brated the accomplishment by
distributing sweets on Sunday
morning as elders rejoiced at the
significance of the title. Later, a
cake was cut at Heritage House
of Jagdip Mehta. Prominent citi- zens will be encouraged to par- of the area known for political
zens celebrated the occasion. ticipate in heritage conserva- and social leaders Many re-
This was a long-awaited rec- tion. search opportunities are avail-
ognition. We celebrated with fire- We now have to ensure that able to document traditions
works, said Sanjay Patel, a resi- the heritage movement isnt re- such as water conservation,
dent of Kalupur. The Unesco stricted to the elite; it should be- caste- and community-specific
status will boost conservation long to the masses, said Dr He- architecture and local food. We
efforts in the Walled City, which mant Bhatt, the president of the have also proposed the painting
faces problems ranging from Khadia Itihas Samiti, an organi- of facades of iconic areas such
maintenance of heritage proper- zation responsible for painstak- as Desai ni Pol in uniform col-
ties to encroachment. Now, citi- ingly putting together the history our,
Ahmedabads victory
ic bodys heritage cell was formed
in 1996 to handle conservation
Descendants of Manek Nath
offered special prayers at Manek
a model for others
of the fort walls, step-wells, bird Chowk on Sunday, the Guru New Delhi: Now that Ahmedabad has been
feeders, and pol residences. The Purnima day. Chandan Nath, the declared a World Heritage City by Unesco,
cell also organized the now famed mahant, said: Heritage is not historians, urban planners and others hope
heritage walk. The gazette no- just monuments, it is also tradi- that policy-makers will stop looking at herit-
tification of June 2016 listed for tions conserved by citizens. Its age as a burden.
conservation 2,236 residences our responsibility to take our in- This is wonderful news and I hope it will
and 449 institutional buildings, heritance forward. make people look at heritage differently and
an official said. At Sarkhej Roza, on the Urs open up the doors to many other old cities,
Fittingly, Ahmedabads tri- of the Shaikh, devotees offered which have the potential of becoming World
umph spurred a unique conflu- a new chaddar and prayed for Heritage Cities, noted urban planner and
ence of faiths on Sunday as the the citys prosperity. A qawwali architect A G K Menon said.
two great icons associated with performance was organized too. He expressed the hope that policy-makers
the citys foundation Baba Bhavna Ramrakhiani, advisor, and others would not consider heritage as a
Manek Nath and Shaikh Ahmed Sarkhej Roza Committee, said burden and anti-development.
Ganj Baksh Khattu were hon- that the citys founders laid a The city of Delhi was nominated by India
oured. timeless foundation. in 2015 for the same category but the Centre
pulled out of the race towards the end of the
process.
Menon, a former convener of the Delhi
Chapter of the heritage group, INTACH, said
the AMC and the state government as well
as the people all worked very hard to make
this dream a reality.
The honour, he said, was a lesson for
civic bodies around the country.
Delhi-based heritage activist Sohail Hash-
mi, however, sounded a word of caution.
It is indeed a moment of pride for all of
us. But this achievement comes with a price.
We know Delhis nomination was withdrawn
because many decision-makers thought it
(the UNESCO tag) would hamper urban in-
frastructure expansion, he said.
Ahmedabad has 26 ASI-protected struc-
tures.
TIMES NEWS NETWORK pagating tree plantation dri-
ves.
Ahmedabad: On Sunday, Bharat Sisodia, a senior
hundreds of residents from member of the group, says,
42 housing societies in Mote-
ra area showed Ahmedabad
After three years,
that trees can be planted
with responsibility and ear-
nestness. Close to 1,000 sap-
those who have
taken care of trees
lings were planted by resi- will win prizes
dents at a recently-develo-
ped municipal garden and in The main sponsors of the
each of the participating so- event are the local provi-
cieties in Motera. sions store owners who actu-
Sundays tree plantation ally depend on business
drive had a unique incentive from all residential societies
attached to it. Each tree here. The local builders too
planted by the societies had have contributed to the cau-
a plaque next to it. se and plan to support the en-
After three ye- will win prizes. The same nior officials of the Ahmed- deavour in future as well.
ars, those who incentive was extended to abad Municipal Corpora- Another member, Sushil
have taken ca- families living in the 53 tion (AMC). The residents Joshi, a professor at govern-
re of trees societies in Motera themselves formed an NGO ment engineering college,
which had carried out named, Creating Aware- says: More than the elders,
Make City the tree plantation drive
in their own societies.
ness To Change Habits
(CATCH), and have been
it is the young amongst us
who are more enthusiastic
BREATHE AGAIN The event was atten-
ded by the mayor and se-
practising waste segrega-
tion in 53 societies and pro-
in the effort. We will partici-
pate in more such drives.