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Green belt to protect Sun temple

M I Khan in Konark

The Orissa government, in consultation with the Archaeological Survey of India, has decided to create a "green belt" around the world-famous Sun temple in Konark to save it from further damage.

This step was decided recently following a recent assessment to ascertain the loss of trees in the cyclone that devastated the coastal belt last year. Experts feared that the Konark Sun temple may have suffered some damage.

The demand for a green belt around the temple is an old one. Environmentalists and nature lovers had warned in the early 90s that exploitation of the green area around the temple in the name of development may finally threaten the temple.

Rabinarayan Senapati, the commissioner-cum-special secretary of the state department of tourism, stressed on the need of a green belt. And he had the backing of officials of the ASI, which is responsible for the protection and conservation of the temple. The ASI conservation assistant suggested that 2,000 cashewnut trees, 500 neem trees, 1,000 deodar trees, 1,000 gulmohar trees and 500 coconut saplings be planted near the temple.

"The green belt around this architectural marvel is the need of the hour. It is facing problems of structural stability due to saline winds" since it's near the sea, an ASI official here said. A state government source said that the state government, in consultation of international conservation organisations, will raise the requisite funds to create a green belt near the sea, about a kilometre from the temple.

"After the super cyclone devastated and uprooted almost 75 per cent trees and mangrove forest on the Marine Drive near the temple, it was necessary to start a big green project to save the temple," the source said.

Noted environmentalist and president of the Orissa Krushak Mahasangha, Banka Behary Das, says that trees around the temple were destroyed by the cyclone last October.

"There was no green belt as such around the temple before the cyclone, except for the large number of trees," he says.

Das feel the creation of a green belt is a must for the survival of the temple, which is already threatened by encroachment in the prohibited zone near temple.

"If the green belt comes within 100 metres of the temple -- within the prohibited area -- all illegal encroachment will have to be removed first" he says.

The experts believes that concrete construction should not be allowed within 300 metres of the temple (the prohibited zone), and discouraged in the next 200 metres (the regulated zone).

Several concrete structures have violated the law come up in recent years near the Sun temple, allegedly to serve tourists.

While the state, with help from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, has begun conservation of the 13th century temple, described by Prince Charles of England as a "Poetry in stone", Das feel that illegal constructions in the prohibited zone endangers the temple.

Environmentalists and the art lovers have raised the issue of unauthorised permanent structures in the prohibited zone. They have hinted that commercial exploitation of the green belt around the temple had to be stopped.

"The officials of the Konark Notified Area Council, with backing from the state government, have constructed an office and a market complex within the prohibited zone... despite strong opposition from the central government and the environmentalists," Das alleged.

Even a liquor shop has been opened near the temple in the NAC market complex, to serve tourists.

"It is an open violation of the law but vested interests always manage to carry on with it," said a local social worker, Dhirendra Mahapatra.

The problem the temple currently faces is the unintended outcome of a master plan drawn up in 1982, when J B Patnaik was the chief minister.

"Patnaik's intention was to develop it in a proper way but it became a victim of vested interest later," some local people said.

Though the plan emphasis was on well-balanced, ecological and physical development, it hardly did anything to protect the temple.

The Konark NAC officials and state government officials have encouraged and assisted vested interests commercially exploit the area.

The original master plan, to cope with overcrowding and consequent environmental deterioration, had reserved 83 acres of land, in the shape of a horseshoe, around the temple. The area was demarcated as the "Temple Environmental Zone".

The plan further provided the green gardens and walkways around the temple, as also light recreational facilities. The plan had also ruled out construction work in the zone.

Activists of the Konark Vikas Manch, a local organisation working for the protection of the temple, says that though UNESCO has listed it as a world heritage site, and though there's been a hue and cry about, nothing has been done to protect the temple from the briny air of the Bay of Bengal.

The Sun temple was repaired in the 19th century too. But it was only in 1903 that the government declared it a monument of national importance.

The central government set up the first committee of experts to look into the conservation work of the temple in 1956. It was later reconstituted in 1976.

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