Citing prevailing drought conditions and anticipated water scarcity, Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar chapter, has urged the forest department to take immediate water availability and wildfire prevention measures in forests around the district. In a representation submitted to forest department officials, INTACH co-convener Swapnil Joshi sought creation of new water holes and priority implementation of fire-line works in Gautala Wildlife Sanctuary, Ajanta forest ranges and plantation areas around Sarola, Mhaismal and Daulatabad.

"Forest ranges are ecologically significant as they support diverse wildlife and bird species. Rapidly declining natural water resources and dry climatic conditions will cause acute water scarcity for wildlife during summer. This situation could force wild animals to venture into human settlements in search of drinking water and increase human-wildlife conflict,” Joshi said.

INTACH requested the forest department to identify suitable locations for new waterholes, ponds and other water bodies, along with restoration, desilting and deepening of existing natural and artificial sources. It also recommended watershed management interventions such as small check dams, contour trenches, percolation structures and groundwater recharge measures. The organisation placed special emphasis on drinking water for wildlife at vulnerable locations, and on developing sustainable water harvesting facilities at plantation sites.

Drawing attention to the increased risk of forest fires during prolonged dry spells, INTACH urged the department to prioritise planning, creation, clearing and maintenance of fire lines across vulnerable ranges to prevent the outbreak and spread of wildfires.

"Such measures are essential to safeguard wildlife habitats, forest vegetation, biodiversity and settlements adjoining forests,” Joshi added. The organisation also proposed a joint site inspection with forest officials to identify priority locations, assess existing resources and formulate a timely conservation programme before summer 2027, along with a willingness to create public awareness for community participation initiatives, stating that forest and wildlife conservation is an integral part of heritage conservation. Chief conservator of forests for Marathwada, Pramod Chand Lakra, said the forest department is closely monitoring the drought situation and taking measures to protect wildlife.

The North East Festival of Rice – Grains of Heritage was celebrated on 26th of February 2026 at the Exposition Hall, Agri Expo, Chumoukedima. The event funded by the North Eastern Council (NEC), Shillong was organized by Indian National Trust for Art & Culture Heritage (INTACH), Nagaland Chapter in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Government of Nagaland, Kohima; NEZCC under the Ministry of Culture, Dimapur; ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Nagaland Centre, Medziphema; ICAR Research Complex for NEH Region, Umiam (Barapani), Meghalaya; ICAR–Indian Institute of Rice Research (IIRR), Hyderabad; ICAR–Central Rice Research Institute (CRRI), Cuttack; and the School of Agricultural Sciences (SAS), Nagaland University, Medziphema.

Addressing the gathering, Advisor for Agriculture, Nagaland, Mhathung Yanthan expressed deep honour in inaugurating what he described as a “visionary and historic initiative.” He lauded INTACH Nagaland for conceptualising the festival with conviction and courage, noting that organising a regional agri-focused event of such magnitude requires commitment and foresight. Highlighting the cultural significance of rice, the Advisor said that rice is not merely an agricultural commodity but life, identity, and heritage for the people of the Northeast. “From cradle to grave, rice accompanies us. It sanctifies our festivals, anchors our harvests, and shapes our oral traditions," he remarked.

He underscored that the Northeast is globally recognised as a hotspot of agro-biodiversity, with Nagaland alone reportedly having over 200 identified indigenous rice landraces adapted to specific microclimates and terrains over centuries. He cautioned, however, that many traditional varieties are at risk of degeneration and called upon scientists, researchers, and stakeholders to deliberate intensively on their conservation and scientific advancement during the two-day workshop. Drawing attention to climate change and its impact on agriculture, he noted that erratic rainfall, floods, droughts, and pest outbreaks pose serious challenges to our food system. He emphasised the need to develop climate-resilient and short-duration rice varieties that ensure higher productivity while preserving traditional germplasm.

“While we hold on to our heritage, we must also provide practical solutions to farmers,” he stated. The Advisor further stressed that sustainability for the ancestors was a way of life, rooted in respect for land and community. Protecting rice, he said, also means protecting rural economies, artisans, weavers, millers, and food processors whose livelihoods depend on agrarian systems. Encouraged by the participation of students and youth, he urged young people to understand seeds, soil, and farmers as living relationships rather than academic concepts, so they may grow into responsible scientists, policymakers, and custodians of the land. Informing the gathering, he announced that the state has framed a new Agriculture Policy 2026, which has been approved by the Cabinet and will soon be implemented.

He expressed hope that recommendations emerging from the festival’s deliberations would guide the effective implementation of the policy. Concluding his address, he reaffirmed the collective responsibility to conserve seed heritage, honour farmers, empower youth, and sustain rice-based livelihoods across the Northeast. Declaring the festival official inaugurated, he expressed hope that the Festival would become a regular platform celebrating the region’s agricultural wisdom and cultural richness. Delivering the welcome address, Sentila T. Yanger, Padmashree and State Convenor of INTACH Nagaland Chapter, followed by a symbolic sowing of rice seeds, symbolizing renewal, prosperity and respect for the agrarian traditions of the Northeast. An opening prayer was pronounced by Rev.

Lipok Jamir, Pastor of Ao Baptist Church, Diphupar. The programme also featured special guest remarks by Dr. Sandeep Ghatak, Director, ICAR, Umiam; Dr. A.K. Mohanty, Director, ICAR-ATARI, Umiam, Sanuzo Nuinei, Director, Department of Agriculture, Nagaland and Dr. Prashanna Gogoi, Director, NEZCC, Ministry of Culture & Sangeet Natak Akademi Awardee. The speakers emphasized sustainable agricultural practices, research support for farmers, and the need to promote traditional grains in the face of modern challenges. The programme concluded with a vote of thanks proposed by Mefutiba Longkumer, Co-Convenor of INTACH Nagaland Chapter.

St Edward’s School won the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) National Heritage Quiz 2026, hosted by Auckland House School for Boys, Shimla. Auckland House School for Girls, Shimla, secured the second position, followed by Auckland House School for Boys in third place. Saraswati Paradise International School, Shimla, finished fourth. The competition featured students from five schools across the city and provided them an opportunity to explore and celebrate India’s rich historical, cultural and architectural heritage. Organised by INTACH in collaboration with Xpress Minds Edutainment, the quiz aimed to promote heritage awareness among students and encourage a deeper appreciation of the country’s cultural legacy. The competition began with a written preliminary round, followed by an oral round in which four teams qualified. The oral round featured challenging questions on Indian history, monuments, art, traditions and cultural heritage. The participants displayed commendable knowledge, quick thinking and teamwork. The programme concluded with the announcement of the results and the distribution of certificates among the participants. Reuben John, Principal of Auckland House School for Boys, said the event provided students with an enriching academic experience and encouraged intellectual curiosity, healthy competition and a deeper understanding of India’s cultural identity. “By hosting this prestigious quiz, Auckland House School for Boys provided a valuable platform for inter-school interaction and reinforced the importance of heritage education in nurturing informed and culturally aware young citizens,” he said.

With the aim of connecting people with Delhi's rich heritage, the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), in association with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), will organise a guided heritage walk at Sanjay Van on November 14, an official said on Sunday. The participation fee is Rs 500 plus GST per person and the registration link is bit.ly/HeritageWalkSanjayVan. The walk will cover five locations: the Historic Well, the Large Fortification, the Small Fortification, the Bastion near the Small Fortification and the Lal Kot Wall, the DDA official said in a statement. This will be the second walk in the series and the guided tour, conceptualised by Lieutenant Governor and DDA Chairperson Taranjit Singh Sandhu, the statement said.

The structure to be covered under the walk on November 14 preserve important evidence of Delhi's early medieval history and its earliest fortified capital. There were in a state of severe neglect before the DDA carried out the conservation and restoration works to protect and improve their accessibility.

At the Historic Well, the masonry was repaired, accumulated debris was cleared from the shaft, and a traditional-style timber shelter was installed to protect the structure from the elements while retaining its historic character. At the Large Fortification, restoration works stabilised the existing structure and excavated specific areas, revealing several historical layers and enabling visitors to walk along the stabilised ramparts and explore the excavated sections.

The Small Fortification has also been recently conserved by the DDA, and situated near the LG Rock Cafe which is frequented by visitors daily, the statement added. Under the guidance of the Lieutenant Governor, the DDA has signed a six-month memorandum of understanding (MoU) with INTACH (Delhi Chapter) to organise guided heritage and nature walks at DDA's heritage and green spaces for six months.

The initiative follows the Lieutenant Governor Sandhu's Heritage Walk at Sanjay Van, where he also launched the e-book on the Delhi Ridge and directed DDA to focus on conserving the city's ecology, protecting its historic structures and making its heritage more accessible to the public. The first walk under the initiative commenced at Mehrauli Archaeological Park on October 24.

The initiative also aligns with The Master Plan for Delhi 2047, which emphasises heritage conservation alongside planned and sustainable urban development and encourages heritage trails, cultural circuits and public activities, the statement said. "As per the MoU, 12 guided walks will be organised over six months, with two walks each month across six locations: Sanjay Van, Mehrauli Archaeological Park, Sultan Garhi, Tughlaqabad, Deer Park/Hauz Khas and the Northern Ridge. INTACH Delhi Chapter will curate the routes and themes, develop interpretative content and arrange heritage experts and guides in coordination with DDA," the statement added.

The discovery is significant as it is the first time the TN archaeology department has unearthed bronze idols during its excavation, officials said. Bronze idols of Nataraja and Sivakami, dating back to the 12th century during the Chola period, have been unearthed along with their respective pedestals during an ongoing archaeological excavation in Nagapattinam. Minister for School Education Rajmohan A announced the discovery in a social media post. The discovery is significant as it is the first time the TN archaeology department has unearthed bronze idols during its excavation, officials said.

The Nataraja idol, depicted in the Ananda Tandava posture, measures 110 cm in height and 100 cm in width. He has four arms, with the upper right hand holding a drum, and the upper left hand holding a flame. One foot rests on Muyalakan, while the other is raised. The Sivakami idol, measuring 82 cm in height and 23 cm in width, is in Tribhanga posture. The post by Rajmohan stated that several idols, including a Chola-era bronze Nataraja and Sivakami Amman, have been unearthed. The excavation is being carried out as part of the department’s 2026-27 programme.

So far, six trenches have been dug up at the site in the town. The idols were found at a depth of one metre. According to the department, the idols exhibit the iconographic features and artistic style of 12th-century Chola sculptures. They are expected to provide insights into the region’s religious practices and cultural history during the Chola era.

Shed light on chola religious practices
The discoveries by the Tamil Nadu archaeology department are expected to provide insights into the region’s religious practices and cultural history during the Chola era

Sirpur’s entry on UNESCO’s Tentative List is more than a recognition of an ancient temple or a cluster of archaeological ruins. It brings renewed attention to Sripura, an early medieval capital on the Mahanadi in present-day Chhattisgarh, whose remains indicate a functioning city organised around trade, water, craft production, religious institutions and political power. India submitted the Sirpur cultural and archaeological landscape to UNESCO on September 28, 2026, beginning the preliminary process for possible World Heritage recognition. The listing does not itself confer World Heritage status, but it changes the frame through which the site is understood.

Sirpur is no longer only a heritage excursion from Raipur or a location identified with the Lakshmana Temple. The evidence presented in the nomination material describes a broader urban landscape that developed between the fifth and 12th centuries CE. That distinction matters because archaeological sites are often presented through their most visible structures. At Sirpur, the red-brick Lakshmana Temple is the best-known landmark, but the settlement around it reveals the more complex infrastructure of a city.

Excavations have identified broad streets, drainage and water-management systems, courtyard houses, royal buildings, religious establishments, granaries, workshops and commercial spaces. Together, these remains suggest that Sripura’s urban character rested on networks and institutions, not just monumental architecture.

The site’s present appearance makes that history easy to miss. Sirpur is now a quiet village located about 80 kilometres from Raipur, close to the Mahanadi. Beyond homes and agricultural fields, however, fragments of the earlier settlement appear in the form of temples, Buddhist monastic cells, palace remains, wells, sculptures and traces of streets. The contrast between the contemporary settlement and the buried or scattered urban footprint is central to the challenge of conserving Sirpur.

Its significance is distributed across a landscape rather than concentrated inside a single monument. The available evidence also points to an economy supported by specialised production. Excavations recovered what researchers described as an almost complete goldsmith’s toolkit, including pincers, tongs, a hammer and a touchstone used to test gold. Evidence of pottery production and bronze casting has also been reported. A National Book Trust study on the history of Indian glass records the discovery of glass slag, drawn wire and crucibles containing glass-making material. These findings suggest that glass was manufactured at Sirpur rather than simply arriving as finished ornaments. Such objects help restore the working population to the story of the city.

They indicate spaces where artisans produced goods, traders exchanged commodities and households used tools in daily economic activity. The archaeological record therefore moves the narrative away from kings and temples alone. It shows a city in which manufacture, storage, commerce and domestic life operated alongside political and religious institutions. Sirpur’s location beside the Mahanadi was another important element in its development. The city stood in fertile territory and along routes connecting central India with eastern India and the Deccan. UNESCO’s nomination material identifies it as a meeting point for merchants, artisans, pilgrims and religious communities.

Archaeological studies suggest trade connections towards Cuttack, Varanasi and other commercial centres, although the precise extent of those networks remains a matter of historical interpretation. What the evidence establishes more firmly is that Sirpur was not an isolated religious settlement. The combination of commercial spaces, workshops, water systems and religious establishments points to an urban centre whose economic and cultural life depended on movement. Rivers, roads, storage facilities and markets formed the connective tissue between the city’s different functions. In this sense, Sirpur offers an early example of how urban form can reflect the relationship between geography, production and exchange. Its religious landscape adds another layer to that urban history. Shaiva and Vaishnava temples, Buddhist monasteries and stupas, and Jain establishments existed within the same broad settlement. UNESCO’s nomination material identifies interaction between different faiths in a shared civic and cultural setting. The significance is not simply that several traditions are represented at one archaeological site.

It is that their institutions appear to have operated within the same urban environment, alongside markets, residences, workshops and administrative spaces. The reign of Mahasivagupta Balarjuna, one of the prominent Panduvamshi rulers associated with Sirpur, is particularly relevant to this history. Although the ruler was associated with Shaivism, the period also witnessed Buddhist patronage. Inscriptions and monastic remains indicate a political environment in which Buddhist institutions flourished alongside other religious establishments. An inscription associated with Anandaprabhu Vihara records the establishment of a village and a feeding house for Buddhist followers during his reign.

This evidence complicates any attempt to assign Sirpur a single religious identity. The Lakshmana Temple, commissioned by Queen Vasata in memory of her husband Harshagupta, remains one of the clearest architectural markers of the site. Generally dated to the seventh century, it is among India’s earliest surviving examples of monumental brick temple architecture. Its red-brick tower, sculptural ornamentation and carved stone doorway demonstrate a high level of architectural and material skill. But the temple is one part of a landscape that also includes monasteries, stupas, Jain establishments and civic infrastructure. That wider setting is important for contemporary conservation. A monument-centred approach can protect an iconic structure while leaving the relationships that made the historical city meaningful poorly understood.

Sirpur’s streets, wells, drainage, production areas and commercial spaces are not background details. They explain how the settlement functioned and how its institutions were connected. The UNESCO process could therefore place greater emphasis on the cultural and archaeological landscape rather than treating the site as a list of disconnected buildings. The institutional question is equally significant. The Sirpur Special Area Development Authority is responsible for the local development framework, and its chief executive officer, Dhammsheel Ganvir, said the UNESCO Tentative List inclusion could help position the ancient capital on the global tourism map. Ganvir described Sirpur as a 1,500-year-old heritage site and a valuable part of the region’s cultural history. His statement reflects the tourism opportunity attached to the listing, but the nomination also raises the need to manage access, interpretation and conservation across a dispersed site.

For years, Sirpur has largely been promoted as a heritage excursion from Raipur, centred on the Lakshmana Temple, Buddhist ruins and Gandheshwar Temple. That model presents the site as a short itinerary of attractions. The archaeological evidence suggests a different framework: Sirpur should be read as a former city whose religious buildings were embedded in a larger system of streets, water infrastructure, homes, workshops and markets. The available report does not establish the scale of current visitor growth, the funding required for conservation or the administrative arrangements that would follow a successful World Heritage nomination. It also does not settle the precise boundaries of the ancient urban settlement or the full extent of its trading networks.

These are important gaps because recognition of a landscape requires more than international visibility. It requires clarity about what is being protected, which institutions are responsible, and how archaeological remains will coexist with present-day settlements and livelihoods. Sirpur’s potential global significance lies in the way its evidence connects architecture with everyday urban life. The goldsmith’s tools, glass-working materials, wells, drainage systems and courtyard houses are as important to the city’s story as the temples and royal remains. They show that the built environment was produced by many kinds of workers and users, and that religious diversity operated within an economic and civic landscape. The UNESCO Tentative List has therefore reopened a larger question about how India identifies and presents its urban heritage. Cities are often remembered through monuments, while the systems that sustained them disappear from public view. Sirpur’s remains make those systems visible.

They suggest that the ancient capital’s enduring value lies not only in what survives above ground, but in the evidence of how people organised movement, belief, production, water and exchange over several centuries. The next stage will determine whether this broader understanding becomes part of Sirpur’s conservation and tourism planning. For now, the Tentative List entry confirms the site’s international heritage potential, while the archaeological record makes clear that its story is fundamentally that of a city: diverse, productive and connected to the wider networks of central and eastern India.