Abstract: India's rapid economic growth has brought significant benefits but also poses serious challenges to its cultural and natural heritage. Urbanization, industrialization, and expanding infrastructure threaten to erode the historical integrity of heritage landscapes. Drawing on a recent NIAS Policy Brief, this talk underscores the need for clear regulatory boundaries, effective enforcement, and a multi-tiered preservation strategy that incorporates modern tools like GIS and remote sensing, community engagement, and stricter land-use controls.
The talk highlights the case of Thotlakonda and Bavikonda, two significant Buddhist heritage sites in Andhra Pradesh. Despite being declared protected in 1978, unclear boundary descriptions have led to contention between preservation and development interests. Using GIS and remote sensing, this study identifies potential archaeological features and examines the impact of land-use changes on these sites, offering insights into sustainable heritage management.
About the speaker: M.B. Rajani is an Associate Professor at NIAS. Her primary scientific contribution lies in developing a rigorous methodology for integrating spatial data from remote sensing images with historical records, including maps, drawings, and textual accounts, to analyze past landscapes. This approach has enabled her to generate new inferences and propose novel hypotheses about the past. Her current research focuses on creating a National Database of Archaeological and Cultural Heritage Sites of India. This project addresses the critical issue of how protection boundaries for heritage sites are defined, offering solutions to establish more rational and effective boundaries. She has published a NIAS Policy Brief titled 'Regulation Boundaries for Preservation of Cultural Heritage Sites' (2021) on this subject. A pilot database covering 25 Indian heritage sites has been successfully completed with funding from ISRO. This initiative is now being expanded to include 100 sites through a new project funded by the Murty Trust.