It was a concentrated effort: Tourism minister on Unesco tag for Ramappa temple
There were so many meetings, at least 50 of them, when we all sat up all night because of the time differences attending virtual meetings
HYDERABAD: Achieving the Unesco world heritage site status for Ramappa temple took a lot of preparation, hard work, and precision in terms of meeting procedural requirements, Telangana tourism minister V Srinivas Goud said.
In an interview with this newspaper, Srinivas Goud elaborated some of the backroom hard work that went into making the Ramappa Temple from a lesser-known icon of Kakatiya architecture into an overnight world celebrity as a Unesco world heritage site. Excerpts:
Q: How much work has gone into making today’s achievement, that was once a dream, into a reality?
A: It was a focused effort from the beginning since 2019 when we started pursuing the goal. How well one goes about a task like this depends on how seriously the state’s leadership pursues the matter. For us, we have our Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who kept himself abreast of every development at every stage of the process. This was the incentive for every official to work diligently, answer every query to the satisfaction of the evaluating committee. There were so many meetings, at least 50 of them, when we all sat up all night because of the time differences attending virtual meetings and conferences. There are piles of paperwork that shows how precise the entire process of granting the world heritage site status by UNESCO is.
Q: What comes next for Telangana after Ramappa Temple’s recognition?
A: Our officials now have a full understanding of what goes into achieving such recognition. We will be pursuing, every year, to achieve similar status to other cultural and historical sites in Telangana. On our list are the Charminar, the Golconda Fort, the 1000 pillared temple, Warangal Fort, Mutyala Dhara waterfall in Mulugu district, the Pillalamarri banyan tree, and the Qutubshahi Tombs.
Q: What are the immediate plans for Ramappa temple?
A: Our Chief Minister has some plans for development of a proper tourism circuit that will have the Yadadri Temple and the Ramappa Temple. The Telangana government will ensure that the impetus we received today, will not go down and work towards making the state a proper tourism destination.