As the almost 850-year-old iconic Gothic heritage site, Notre-Dame Cathedral, battled flames days ahead of the World Heritage Day, here's what India can learn from the tragedy.
New Delhi: The recent fire in the famous Parisian heritage site, Notre-Dame Cathedral, has sent shockwaves across the globe. The medieval Gothic architectural marvel was built in the 12th and 13th centuries and was undergoing renovation at the time of the fire that also caused it's spire to collapse.
Now, experts are saying that cultural hub, India, should also take a few lessons from the unfortunate incident. Global heritage expert Vinod Daniel suggested that the new government should conduct a "national-level fire audit" of museums and other cultural landmarks in India within 12 months in office.
The India-born Australian and top museum specialist, also said that along with the central-level exercise, a state-level fire safety auditing should also be done as a large portion of India's cultural and architectural wealth are locally governed.
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Daniel is a board member of the Paris-based International Council of Museums (ICOM), says while Indians have reacted very emotionally to the incident, which is important, but as a nation, India should take valuable lessons out of this loss and "assess its own fire safety and risk management capabilities". He also shared in the interview with PTI that he had issued a caution last year that a majority of museums and cultural repositories in India were at risk of suffering "grave damage" in the event of a major fire, and suggested that a disaster management plan be properly implemented by these institutions.
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While the majority of cultural sites in India lag behind in the damage prevention and control should a similar incident occur here, museums such as the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, National Museum in Delhi and the Bihar Museum in Patna do have a management policy and a roadmap to deal with such incidents.
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