Digging Up the Path of the Mythical Saraswati River

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NEW DELHI (July 26, 2003) - The Indian government has decided to

take up excavation along the entire stretch of what was once the

route of the long dried Saraswati river from Haryana to Gujarat.

 

"Excavations in India have not been taken up in a systematic manner.

People are not fully aware of the cultural sites and heritage in the

country," Tourism Minister Jagmohan said here Friday.

 

"We are now planning to take up excavation along the entire

(Saraswati) stretch from Adi Badri in Haryana to Dhaulavira in

Gujarat," he said.

 

The attempt would be to create awareness of the country's cultural

heritage while developing tourism sites, said Jagmohan, addressing

an interactive meeting organised by UNESCO with the Parliamentarians

Forum for Human Development (PFHD) and the Australian National

University (ANU) for parliamentarians.

 

The workshop was part of "awareness creating measures" to protect

cultural heritage through people and community participation to

check mushrooming illicit traffic in artefacts and cultural

properties, said R.P. Perera, programme officer of UNESCO.

 

In the absence of community awareness, a large number of artefacts

and cultural sites were vulnerable to looting and pilferage,

Jagmohan warned.

 

"We are shortly coming up with an amendment to the existing

legislation on protection of antiques and arts which will make

illegal trafficking a cognisable offence and give police the powers

of seizure," said Jagmohan.

 

At present, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) often finds

itself helpless in taking prompt action against smugglers because of

legal loopholes.

 

On the planned excavation along the dried up Saraswati, a tourism

ministry official said it was expected to reveal abandoned towns and

inhabitations from the Harappan civilisation dating well before 3000

BC.

 

The desert region of Dhaulavira in Kutch, in close proximity to the

sea, is believed to have been a major port city. Work has started to

develop this site as a heritage tourist centre with documentation

and interpretation centre.

 

On the same line, Adi Badi and 1,500 sites along the route of

excavation would be developed with museums to house any of the

artefacts uncovered and picnic spots to provide leisure activities,

said Jagmohan.

 

Perera agreed with Jagmohan's contention that it was essential to

develop a clean environment around heritage sites to instil

awareness about their worth among communities to encourage them to

protect it at all cost.

 

"Unless we address the issue of people living around the heritage

sites, we cannot protect the cultural heritage," said Perera.

 

Amareswar Galla, director of implementation of 1970 UNESCO

Convention at ANU, stressed that unless countries take steps to

address the poverty, issues of cultural heritages were liable to

remain vulnerable.

 

"As long as you have poverty, you will have problem with dealing

illicit trafficking in cultural property be it India or elsewhere,"

said Galla, an India-born Australian.

 

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