While Bengaluru brings forth the picture of a modern day tech mega-polis, very few people know of its immense historical past. The Roman coins that go back to about 27BC were discovered near Jalahalli and these are well-known, but the city is full of lesser-known microliths, megalith tombs and stone age implements which show confirmed traces of human settlements as far back as 4000 C.E.! There are many researchers who believe early human settlements date back to 6000 BCE in our city!
The many historical sites and treasures, both built and natural have never been formally protected by the government. It is very essential that “Preservation of Heritage” is made a key responsibility of the Urban Adminis tration. Several attempts were made to institutionalise this in the past including a special emphasis in the Agenda for Bengaluru Infrastructure and Development Task Force (ABIDE) report that was funded and supported by Namma Bengaluru Foundation.
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It is crucial that a Bengaluru Heritage Commission be setup with a five-year tenure that will look at the identification, protection and conservation of heritage across the entire Bengaluru Metropolitan Region. This should be suitably funded and run under the aegis of the Bengaluru Metropolitan Planning Committee. An immediate goal must be to establish a Bengaluru Heritage Register that will compile the exhaustive list of Architecture, Cultural and Natural history of the city.
It was unravelling when a fellow Bengalurean, Udaya Kumar, documented that William Lambton’s proposal to survey the peninsular India after the defeat of Tipu Sultan had a Bengaluru connection. Lambton’s initial survey from coast to coast was drawn up in Doddagunta near Ulsoor in 1800. The baseline for this survey was between KR Puram and Agara a distance of around 8 miles. This further evolved into the Great Trigonometric Survey and ended up providing us inch perfect maps of India. Many artefacts from this survey are strewn across Bengaluru lying unmarked and unprotected.
Unless the Government acts fast, we will risk losing many of these iconic heritage artefacts to the unregulated growth that has overtaken the city like a storm. We will be wiping of such marvellous facets of our city unless we begin now.
