BHOPAL: Human beings have been the biggest threat to rock art sites across the country, said Dr Rakesh Tewari, former director general of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) while talking to Free Press.
Tewari was in the city to deliver the Dr VS Wakankar memorial lecture at the inaugural session of the three-day 24th National Conference of Rock Art Society of India at the State Museum.
He said that unbridled tourism has emerged as a major danger to this magnificent heritage and so is the decimation of forests and climate change.
Tewari said that it was imperative to make the people living in and around such sites aware of their importance. “They should be involved in the preservation efforts,” he said.
The top archaeological expert said that it would be erroneous to assume that the creators of these pieces of art were backward or unconnected with the people of today. “We should be indebted to them as they had invented fire and the wheel - which are the foundations of modern civilisation. “They taught us how to paint, how to rear animals and how to use animals as food,” he said.
The conference is being hosted by the directorate of archaeology and museums, Madhya Pradesh and MP Tourism Corporation.
In his keynote address, Tewari paid tributes to Dr VS Wakankar and recalled his personal association with the discoverer of the Bhimbetka Rock Shelters. He threw light on the rock art sites discovered since 1867 to date in various parts of India. He said that with the development of digital technology, it had now become possible to produce more accurate and detailed reproductions of rock paintings and engravings. He recalled that the Rock Art Society of India was formed in 1990 after a team of archaeologists from India participated in a conference on rock art in Australia. “Dr Wakankar was also to travel to Australia with us but unfortunately, he passed away,” Tewari said.
The conference has been organised to develop operational standards for sustainable conservation, management, development and promotion of rock art heritage sites in a systematic way so that this valuable heritage can be preserved for the posterity.
Nearly 80 scholars, scientists, managers, administrators, professors and professionals from different disciplines like rock art science, archaeology, anthropology, management, forestry, tourism and ecotourism from all parts of the country would hold panel discussions on various related issues.
Pankaj Rag, principal secretary culture and commissioner directorate of Archaeology, Museums and Archives, Govt of MP, Bhopal also addressed the inaugural session.
