BHUBANESWAR: For the first time, the National Monument Authority (NMA) under the Union Ministry of Culture has come up with heritage bylaws for the Sri Jagannath Temple in Puri, proposing the 100 metre area around the 12th century shrine be declared as ‘prohibited area’ where no constructions can be undertaken. The NMA released the draft bylaws under The Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Amendment and Validation) Act (AMASR), 2010, for Jagannath temple and its subsidiary shrines, defining various zones for their conservation and periphery development.
The draft rules prescribe that an area of 100 metre (buffer zone) around the ASI-protected Sri Jagannath temple would be declared as ‘prohibited area’, where no new construction of any kind, either by government or private agencies, would be permitted. A further 200 mtr in all directions would be ‘regulated area’ where construction is not prohibited, but must be approved by the NMA.While the temple site of 9.7 acre is protected area, the prohibited area is 37.061 acre along Meghanad pacheri (boundary wall) and regulated area is 138.385 acre. Currently, all four sides of the temple are mainly used for commercial and residential purposes.
“Since all the 3,786 Centrally-protected monuments in India including Jagannath temple cannot be protected under the same AMASR Act because of their unique nature, it was necessary on our part to frame bylaws that are specific to the Sri Jagannath temple. The bylaws, prepared by a heritage expert committee including INTACH, will balance heritage value of the shrine and urban planning around it,” an NMA official said. The official added, permission for repair and renovation of any building or structure, which existed in the prohibited area before June 16, 1992, or which had been subsequently constructed with the approval of DG-ASI, must be taken up through a competent authority who happens to be the Director, Culture.
The bylaws also state that constructions beyond the regulated area should be taken up with height restrictions and in a manner that they do not block the view of the temple from a distance. Currently, the Puri temple is placed under Special Heritage Zone by the State government.
The NMA has also identified eight others structures that are considered as archaeological heritage remains in Puri. They are Sankhachakra temple, Mahavira temple, Timei Matha, Trinatha temple, Kapalamochana temple, Sweta Ganga Puskarini and Maa Chamunda temple.It further states that LED or any other highly reflective synthetic material may not be used for signage in the Grand Road and banners can only be permitted in the area during special events like Rath Yatra but for not more than three days. The NMA has suggested making the prohibited and regulated zones of the monument plastic-free and hawker/vendor-free zones.
Similar heritage bylaws have been drafted for two temples in Bhubaneswar - Brahmeswar and Ananta Basudev, both in the Ekamra Kshetra heritage site. The NMA released the draft bylaws on January 18 this year and has invited objections and suggestions on them till February 18. The Odisha government has cleared structures on 75 metre radius of the temple to develop a heritage corridor.