Champaner-Pavagadh, Gujarat, India: Challenges and Responses in Cultural Heritage Planning and Design

Abstract

Champaner-Pavagadh, 47 kilometres, northeast of Baroda in Gujarat, India received the World Heritage status in 2004. The site is immense, spreading over six square kilometres, and covers the partially buried fifteenth century Islamic capital city of Champaner and the sacred hill, Pavagadh, a regional pilgrim centre to the Hindus. Small communities live amidst ruins in Champaner, farming and grazing the available land, and on plateaus of Pavagadh hill, catering to the heavy pilgrim traffic. The presence of local communities and short visits by over two million pilgrims to the hill annually adds a significant dimension in cultural heritage planning. Given the site’s many cultural layers, its complex land ownership patterns, and its degraded ecosystem, coupled with lack of adequate legislative framework that can back planning measures, the challenges lie in preserving the neglected and time-ravaged historic monuments, conserving cultural landscape of the sacred sites that receive intense use, protecting the livelihood of local communities, and developing the area as a whole for responsible heritage tourism.