Architectural conservation assignment

1. ARCHITECTURAL
CONSERVATION
ASSIGNMENT-1
LIST A MONUMENT
1.DOCUMENT THE HISTORIC STRUCTURE
2. ASSESSING ITS ARCHITECTURE CHARACTER
3. HISTORIC REPORT OF THE SAME
4.WHAT THEY HAVE DONE FOR HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
5.WHAT ARE GUIDELINES FOR PRESERVATION
6.REHABILITATION AND ITS ADAPTIVE RE-USE OF HISTORIC STRUCTURE
7. ROLE OF INTACH OR ANY INTERNATIONAL AGENCIES IF ANY

2. AJANTA CAVES
INTRODUCTION
Location
The Ajanta caves, a world-famous UNESCO heritage
site, is located at latitude 20◦33012” N to 75◦42001” E
longitude, at 33.5 m AMSL in
ABOUT AJANTA CAVES
• Ajanta caves is one of the most bewildering
archaeological places in India.
• These caves are not natural but man- made, built
by cutting huge granite hillside. It is said that caves
were built by Buddhist, Hindu and Jain monks, who
worshiped and meditated in the caves.
• The cave monument of Ajanta is 30 caves of
decorated mural paintings representing the past
lives and rebirths of the Buddha, pictorial tales and
rock-cut sculptures of Buddhist deities carved in
the 2nd century B.C., along Waghora River with
horseshoe-shaped cliff caves.

3. DISCOVERY
• The Ajanta Caves site are mentioned in the memoirs of several medieval era Chinese Buddhist travellers to India and
by a Mughal era official of Akbar era in early 17th century.
• They were covered by jungle until accidentally "discovered" and brought to the Western attention on 28 April 1819,
when a British officer named John Smith, of the 28th Cavalry, while hunting tiger, discovered the entrance to Cave
No. 10 when a local shepherd boy guided him to the location and the door
• The Ajanta caves are located on the side of a rocky cliff that is on the north side of a U-shaped gorge on the small
river Waghur, in the Deccan plateau.

4. 1. DOCUMENT THE HISTORIC STRUCTURE
• The caves were built in two phases, the first group starting around the 2nd
century BC, while the second group of caves built around 400-650 AD.
• Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation – an undertaking of the
Government of Maharashtra State conceived the Ajanta Ellora Conservation and
Tourism Development Project and got prepared in 1991

6.  THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PROJECT
•To conserve and preserve monuments and natural resources in the Ajanta-Ellora Region
•To improve the infrastructure in order to accommodate the increasing number of tourists to the region and enhance their
experience by providing improved facilities and services.
 ABOUT CONSERVING AJANTA CAVES
• The conservation project was planned in two phases.
 THE MAJOR WORKS COMPLETED IN PHASE-1:
• Monument Conservation
• Airport
• Afforestation
• Roads
• Water Supply
• Electricity
• Visitor Management System (VMS)
 THE MAJOR WORKS COMPLETED IN PHASE-2:
• Structural reinforcement
• Chemical conservation of the paintings and
artifacts
• Preservation of percolation within the caves
Upgrading the environment
• Training conservation staff
• Improving visitor management system.

7.  Special Characteristics
• The special characteristic of this project is that it seeks to balance conservation of the World Heritage Site with usage
of it for tourism promotion and local economic vitalisation
2. ASSESSING ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
• India is a country where diverse cultures developed in its many regions over the course of its 4000 year-plus history,
and it is known for having sites endowed with “outstanding universal value” in the cultural and natural domains.
• India is home to a total of 27 World Heritage Sites, including 22 cultural sites and 5 natural sites, and of these, the
Ajanta and Ellora rock-cut cave temples are important, massive-scale cultural heritage sites which are also the first
places in India to be registered as World Heritage sites, together with the renowned Taj Mahal and Agra Fort, in 1983.
• In recent years, conservation of these sites, use of them as tourism resources, and balance between such
conservation
• The state has driven the Indian economy based on its economic hub, Mumbai, the state capital.
• The state has been putting effort into promotion of tourism as a vital force for further economic development.
• Conservation of Ajanta and Ellora caves is such an economic development happened in state of Maharashtra keeping
its heritage cultural and architectural value intact the conservation had put way to many visitors to the site and
generated economy in that regard.

8. 3. HISTORIC REPORT
• In India’s 7th Five-Year Plan (April 1985—March 1990) which was in effect when this project was planned, tourism
was recognised as a segment of industry, and the importance of the promotion of tourism development by the
private sector was clearly stated.
• The plan indicated a basic policy calling for public investment to be allotted to basic infrastructure development to
support private investment.
• In the 8th Five-Year Plan (1992—1997) which defined the principle of tourism development led by the private
sector, as policy support for the private sector, it was prescribed that particularly promising tourism sites were to be
selected as Special Tourism Areas and tourism investment, including establishment of a tourism development
funds, was to be promoted.
• The project site of this project was also included among the Special Tourism Areas.
• Increase in the importance of this project was observable.
• This is evident from the fact that the following are specifically indicated in the policy: external funds for
conservation of World Heritage Site and tourism promotion (clause 7), development and promotion of cultural
tourism (clause 8), building of tourism information centres (clause 14), and people’s awareness building/raising
toward tourism (clause 15). This action plan reflects the consistent policies of the national and state governments
which emphasize tourism promotion, and this project also conforms to these series of policy trends.
• Therefore, the relevance of the project is recognized as being extremely high, from the planning stage to the
present and into the future.

10. H
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4. HERITAGE MANAGEMENT
Heritage is managed through
• Historic site conservation
• Improvement of surroundings
• Improvement and development of
transport facilities nearby
• Road development to reach at the site
• Water supply and sewerage development
for better environment and to get clean
premises
• Power equipment development to get
proper lighting within the sites
• Development of tourism management
systems like shuttle buses for travellers to
reach at site etc;

11. 5. GUIDELINES FOR PRESERVATION
As per the report of ASI ( Archaeological Survey of India)
• No buffer zones exist for Ajanta caves during 1997
• The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has suggested that a radius of 5 km surrounding Ajanta be
designated as a Green Belt to be administered by the Ministry of Forestry and ASI.
• Entrances to Ajanta cave have sun-screen curtains to prevent direct sunlight from damaging their wall
paintings. Fumigation for insect eradication within all Ajanta caves and PVA treatment on the wall paintings
conducted.
• New grid doors and windows installed as preventive measures against entry of bats and birds.
• ASI is investigated sources of water seepage at Ajanta and an expert meeting was held in 1998.
• Cracks were filled with cement but other options need to be found.
• Regulations permit entry to 40 visitors in each wall-painting cave at a time.
• Removal of bats, vegetation and fungus was completed in one of the caves recently and programmes for
carrying out similar work in other caves were developed.
 Factors that affect the site were;
(i) Tree roots above the caves create cracks and increase water seepage into the caves, which leads to wall
painting and sculpture damage and eventual structural instability;
(ii) Humidity increase within the caves caused by uncontrolled numbers of visitors which leads to fungus
growth, attracting insects and eventually bats;
(iii) Inadequate security encourages vandalism and theft.

12. • Inadequate illumination at Ajanta lead to irreversible long-term damage of wall paintings.
• Phase I of the Ajanta-Ellora Development Plan, supported by a Japanese OECF loan, was completed
in 1997, and evaluated before Phase II is implementation.
• Reforestation of the Ajanta area within this plan could lead to ecological changes and possible insect
population increase.
6. REHABILITATION AND ITS ADAPTIVE RE-USE OF HISTORIC STRUCTURE
• As per the significance existed in 7th five year plan of Maharashtra the Ajanta caves is being given
importance to tourism and economic generation along with conserving the natural heritage.
• It is being done in 2 phases from 1991 to 2002 and is being successfully acting as a tourism spot and
natural heritage site in India.
 Deterioration of Ajanta Caves
• Fruit bats and bird (pigeons) were visiting
Ajanta
caves when sufficient protection was not
provided
to the heritage site and it was open unhindered
throughout the day .
• Bat and bird excreta are rich in organic
nutrients
• Though, in the last few years, the Archaeological
Survey of India (ASI) had protected the caves from
birds and bats by fixing doors on cave entry.
• Previously, Ajanta cave paintings were studied,
coating the paintings with varnish without
removing the dirt and soot .This was done for
clarity and to understand the minute details and to
fix the flaking paint. But consequently, the original
color was changed considerably from white to
yellow, blue to green, and so on .

13. • It was also noticed that in some caves at Ajanta,
there was a layer of white, brown, or black
substance over the paintings. The basal layer of the
Ajanta murals and paintings on the ceiling are
composed of mud plaster and organic matter
locally available paddy husks, vegetable fibers,
grass and fibrous material overlaid with lime,
kaolin, or gypsum.
• The base of the paintings i.e., vegetable husks,
organic materials mixed with the plaster is a good
breeding place for microbes, fungi, and insects.
• Microbes feed on binding materials that are
important food and result in deterioration of
heritage paintings .]
• Most of the damage to the Ajanta paintings have
been observed due to silverfish (Lepisma
saccharina) and few unidentified Coleoptera
species that are a common presence in damp
Insect Pest Control to Control
Degradation of Heritage Structures
• A regular spray of chemicals that includes
insecticides and herbicides.
• Consolidation of weak and loose plaster on cave
walls.
• Chemical treatment for the removal of superficial
accretions.
• Removing old preservative coat followed by
applications of new preservative coat.
• Regular cleaning of the caves.
• Use of bio-pesticides

14.  Methodology
• Considering the background of the study that
provides an overview of important factors that
have facilitated the population of insects in Ajanta
caves and have affected the heritage paintings
systematic research review was carried out to
understand the key factors that have resulted in
the proliferation of insects and deterioration of
Ajanta caves and paintings.
• Systematic research review helped in
understanding the root cause for damage to caves
and especially paintings. Concepts present in the
paper are based on evidence on the deterioration
of heritage structure due to a variety of stresses
that were received from the review of the
literature.
• Detailed information about heritage paintings and
caves of Ajanta and different factors affecting and
leading to the deterioration of monument.
• The focus of prominent factors that have caused
large damage to caves especially biological agents;
chemicals and other options being used to reduce
the damage to paintings and insect pests.

15. 7.ROLE OF AGENCIES
The brief description of work being undertaken by each implementing agency is ;
1.MONUMENT CONSERVATION (Executing Agency: Archaeological Survey of India)
2.AURANGABAD AIRPORT (Executing Agency Airport Authority of India)
3.AFFORESTATION (Forest Department, Maharashtra)
4.ROAD (Executing Agency: Public Works Department, Maharashtra State)
5.WATER SUPPLY (Executing Agency: Maharashtra Jeevan Pradhikaran)
6. TOURISM MARKETING & VISITOR MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (MTDC) :(Maharashtra Tourism
development Corporation)
Development of Ajanta Tourist Complex
•Development of Ellora Tourist Complex
•Public Awareness Activities
•Human Resource Development
•Computerization of Tourist Information
•Conservation of State Archaeological Monuments
•Development of Lonar Crater
•Additional sub projects in the vicinity of the Caves

16. • Along with MTDC ASI plays a vital role in conserving and preserving Ajanta caves natural heritage site.
• Maintenance of ancient monuments of India and archaeological sites and remains of national
importance is the prime concern of the ASI.
• Besides, it regulates all archaeological activities in the country as per the provisions of the Ancient
Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958
Wall paintings at Ajanta caves restoration and preservation images

17. Before and After structural restoration of Ajanta cave chaitya hall done by ASI

18. Thank you!!
Submitted by
Ar.Nizya Mol
S3, SAN AoA
754522566006