Delhi: Red Fort

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

The status of the monument

2016: some decay

Richi Verma, Callousness stains relics of history at Red Fort, Dec 8, 2016: The Times of India

For an agency entrusted with the delicate task of preserving the country's precious heritage, the Archaeological Survey of India has rather callously endangered the beauty and integrity of parts of a World Heritage Site. The marble piers, inlaid with coloured stone in the form of floral arrangements, in the Diwan-e-Khas at Red Fort in Delhi now have ugly welts of blue. There also are signs of abrasions on these precious relics of history .

ASI, astoundingly , appears to be unaware of the daily damage that is being inflicted on the marble structures, and it is enraged conservationists who have called attention to this neglect. What has irked the conservationists is the avoidable staining of the marble piers by blue plastic ropes tied to them to keep visitors at bay. For a heritage structure of the stature of Red Fort, the thoughtless -and damaging -expediency of having plastic ropes tied to the pillars instead of erecting a proper barricade could prove a costly mistake.

“Buildings of the Shah Jahan era, such as Taj Mahal and Diwan-e-Khas, are nothing less than priceless paintings and need to be treated with a high degree of sensitivity ,“ said a historian. The permanent damage done to the intricately carved pillars recall the horror of the damage done to the marble jaali at tached to the Rang Mahal a decade ago, he added.

ASI superintending archaeologist Daljit Singh was not available for comment, but sources in ASI said that the marble pillars would be cleaned of the stains. This hasn't enthused experts though.Swapna Liddle of INTACH explained that cleaning could easily mar the porous marble.“In theory , of course, ASI can scrub off the blue marking, but at what cost?“ she asked.“Chemical treatment can damage the structure and scrubbing, after all, involves the removal of a micro layer of the marble.“

Another conservationist observed that even if ASI had only ropes to fall back on in trying to cordon off the area, it could have used ropes made of natural materials. Rajeev Sethi of the Indian Heritage Foundation was more critical of the measure. “This should not have happened at all,“ he said.

The Diwan-e-Khas, or hall of private audience, was used by Mughal emperors to meet the nobility and was grandly decorated, with the lower portion of the piers bearing inlaid floral motifs and the upper portions gilded and painted.“The ceiling, which was originally inlaid with silver and gold, was stripped bare by the Jats and Marathas during the successive crises of the empire,“ informed a historian.The interiors of the audience hall were plundered in the aftermath of the war of 1857, and the throne, carpets and many other artefacts went missing. The current ceiling was installed in 1911.