The International Day for Monuments and Sites or the World Heritage Day, celebrated on 18 April every year, has become the latest casualty of the coronavirus pandemic in Jammu.
While several media channels and local stakeholders ran special programs in their capacities, people missed an advertisement – print/video/digital, press note or video message from the concerned authorities on the occasion.
“Jammu is lock downed like the rest of India, in order to prevent the spread of coronavirus. But that does not make the authorities of Jammu Tourism, Mubarak Mandi Jammu Heritage Society or J&K Archives Archaeology & Museums Department forget or diminish the importance of this day. The least they could have done is issue an advertisement or press note in the media,” says Ankita, a heritage enthusiast from Jammu.
She adds, “The advertisement could have featured a beautiful picture of a heritage site from the region with titles like – ‘Thank You for staying home this World Heritage Day’, ‘Hopefully next World Heritage Day will not be without you, till then #StayHomeStaySafe’, We wait for beloved tourists, Happy World Heritage Day, or something to express solidarity with the corona warriors. The press note should be wishing people on the occasion, while asking them to implement the preventive measures, and mentioning about the cultural heritage of the region. Is it too much to ask from the aforementioned departments?”
Another resident of Jammu, Vishal, who runs a social media page dedicated to heritage sites of Jammu division, says, “An online event such as webinar would have also been sufficient to assure that the department is alive, and cares for the heritage of Jammu as well as the stakeholders. When the Directorate of School Education Jammu can do a webinar to celebrate the day, why did the concerned departments did not?”
Vishal mentions that making a social media post for the occasion, or organizing an online event can be done easily while sitting at home, and does not require a whole team to gather at a place.
When The News Now reached out to Raj Kumar Katoch, Director Tourism Jammu, he remarked, “Our office lies in the red zone area, so for the staff, the possibility to go and work there is less. Otherwise, we would have celebrated this day and any other day of importance. We are waiting for the containment of the virus, so that we can also get going with our mission to revive tourism.”
He adds, “We have prepared the calendar of activities, but waiting for the administrative approval. Once the lockdown is over, we will try to organize events and recover the losses incurred in these months.”
Notably, World Heritage Day is annually celebrated to promote cultural heritage and diversity of the monuments and sites across the world. The theme for this year is ‘Shared Cultures, Shared Heritage, Shared Responsibility.’
However, with the world reeling under the COVID19, both International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) had proposed different ways in which we could observe the day, such as organizing virtual conferences, online lectures, social media campaigns, sharing photos and videos of heritage monuments and sites, etc, so that people can be educated about the rich cultural heritage history that we have.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, celebrated the occasion through a webinar series, wherein Union Minister of Tourism and Culture Prahlad Singh Patel addressed the participants, along with the panellists. The first webinar was based on the ancient Temple City of Mamallapuram, and the second webinar was titled World Heritage and Sustainable Tourism at Humayun’s Tomb.
Further, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) illuminated five prominent sites in the national capital after sunset – Red Fort, Qutub Minar, Humayun’s Tomb, Purana Qila, and Safdarjung Tomb.
Also: Read my article at THE NEWS NOW
World Heritage Day: Latest Corona casualty in Jammu
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