Local apathy affects Panauti’s World Heritage attempts

By Kedar Timalsina,Kavrepalanchowk, Apr. 28: Attempts to get the historical and cultural city of Panauti (presently Panauti Municipality Ward No. 7, previously wards 5, 6 and 7) recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage have been facing a lack of cooperation from the locals. 

Initiatives to get the old market square of Panauti on the world heritage list began in the 1990s. In 1996, the then government declared the then Panauti Village Development Committee an ancient monument area. However, as the village became a municipality, the residents living within the monument area demolished their old houses and rebuilt them with steel and concrete. These homes, along with new structures that popped up with development, were not heritage-friendly.

Buildings in the monument area are required to be built or rebuilt without using cement, not be taller than 35 feet, maintain their original Malla, Shah or Rana-era façade and maintain the artistic carvings present on their windows, doors, walls or anywhere else on their structure. However, the locals do not seem interested in following these standards.

Sabin Tamrakar, chairman of Panauti Ward 7, said that this was because the people were not aware of the role they needed to play to get their city enlisted as a World Heritage Site and the benefits it would bring. “So, we plan to conduct programmes to inform the locals about this,” he said.

Pradip Basnet, architect at the municipality, said that the local level was nevertheless working to get ward 7 included in the World Heritage List (WHL). For this, he informed that around 100 houses in the ward needed to be made heritage-friendly and ancient rest houses and public buildings needed to be renovated. 

The municipality had earlier forward the documents relating to the city’s status and its world heritage prospects to the federal Council of Ministers. The cabinet has the sole authority to nominate Panauti to United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). However, Basnet revealed that the papers had been sent back and that the city now needed to draft a plan to adequately manage the monument area. He also added that rather than getting the entire ward registered as a World Heritage, the local government currently planned to get one specific area on the WHL. 

Basnet explained that the lack of availability of traditional building materials in the market, absence of conservation knowledge, unchecked construction of buildings that do not comply with heritage standards and the building of a motorable road through the heritage area had made it challenging to get the whole ward recognised as a World Heritage Site. 

Meanwhile, Panauti Municipality issued a directive in 2020 to encourage homeowners to preserve their old houses and maintain a traditional external appearance when building new houses. Similarly, it has set up a Heritage Division to protect and promote local monuments. 

It has also been providing a cash grant to incentivise the construction of heritage-friendly houses. It has so far provided a total amount of Rs. 6,436,664 under the grant to 29 homeowners.