Guv urged to back UNESCO heritage tag for Qutb Shahi Tombs, Charminar

Hyderabad: Architect Abha Narain Lambah appealed to Telangana governor Jishnu Dev Verma and the state government to consider nominating the 106-acre Qutb Shahi Tombs complex, Charminar and the Golconda fort for the UNESCO World Heritage site tag. The request came during a talk she was addressing at the Raj Bhavan to celebrate 100 years of Art Deco architecture.

Calling it a “sad story”, Abha recalled that she had worked for the same years ago, but that the Qutb Shahi Tombs complex was not considered for the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag as one of the committee members raised the issue of its ownership. However, the architect said that the ownership is not at all an issue for UNESCO, and hence appealed to the Telangana governor to look into the matter.

Telangana tourism secretary Dana Kishore, who was also present at the talk, said that he would look into the matter. Architect Abha Narain Lambah, who has done several restoration works on monuments, is also known for her efforts to protect and gain the World Heritage Site status for the Art Deco buildings i Bombay’s Marine Drive and Victorian era structures around it as well.

In the past, efforts were made by the Archaeological Survey of India and the state government to nominate the Charminar and Golconda fort for the UNESCO World Heritage Site tag, but issues like encroachments around the monuments have been a major roadblock.

However, the restoration has been nothing less than spectacular at the Qutb Shahi Tombs in Hyderabad, thanks to the Aga Khan Trust for Culture (AKTC). The complex was even part of the Deccan Sultanate monuments (in Telangana and Karnataka) that were set to be nominated as World Heritage Sites. The tombs complex was part of the list of places submitted between February 2019 and January 2020. However, the union government eventually prioritised Gujarat’s Dholavira site over it.

What happened to the Qutb Shahi Tombs World Heritage Site nomination?

In 2021, the Rudreshwara (Ramappa) temple from Telangana bagged the UNESCO World Heritage site, which is surely something to celebrate about, as it put Telangana on the global map as a tourist destination. However, many then wondered why the state also did not push forward other equally important monuments like the Qutb Shahi tombs as well.

The Qutb Shahi tombs, as part of monuments from Deccan (including those from Bijapur and Gulbarga in Karnataka) were also supposed to be nominated as UNESCO World Heritage sites. In fact, even if one leaves aside the Charminar and the Golconda fort, both of which are riddled with local encroachments, the Qutb Shahi tombs is quite possibly one of the perfect places, among many, to be nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

It would have been the perfect nomination as the huge burial site of Hyderabad’s founding royalty has nearly 100 structures, which includes tombs, mosques and other structures. It has enough space for parking, toilets and even an interpretation centre. If properly developed, the complex here can easily even perhaps overshadow the Charminar as the city’s main attraction for tourists.