HYDERABAD: The Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH), Hyderabad chapter launched its ambitious project ‘Zilla Khazana’ here on Wednesday. The project aims to discover and document the cultural heritage of Telangana districts. Under the programme, students, public and anyone interested in artefacts, monuments, forts and natural history can take pictures and share it with INTACH, which will document the data and prepare an inventory. Speaking at the launch, BP Acharya, principal secretary, Tourism and Culture, said: “We are compiling protected monuments. A list of 247 protected monuments is ready but there are at least 20,000 such monuments which are unknown.” He called for participation of youth in the programme for deriving effective results. INTACH has invited high schools, colleges and universities to form INTACH Heritage clubs.
“We appeal to district collectors to support the movement through their tourist and educational facilities,” said P Anuradha Reddy, co-convenor INTACH Telangana state. “The search for our heritage will become a reality if youth gets involved. Most of the monuments are not exposed as tourist destinations,” stated Acharya. The first of INTACH works will be released during the state formation day celebrations. The list of INTACH’s work would be published. he said. Volunteers are expected to give a brief history, location such as village, mandal, district and other available details along with contact details of the contributors. Photographs and information may be sent to intachzkts@gmail.com, intachtelangana1@ gmail.com or call 09441181247.