Art vandals worry experts

KOLKATA: Natural erosion and vandalism were twin evils threaten-ing ‘rock art’ in India, some of them preserved in caves, temples and monasteries over 10,000 years old, Indologists and archaeologists said at the Asiatic Society on Monday.
A two-day seminar organised jointly by the Society and the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manab Sangrahalaya, Bhopal, will be held in the city to discuss the issue.Archaeologists and experts have been invited to speak on the subject and on Wednesday their opinions will be sent to the ministry of culture, society president Amalendu De, said.
“Apart from natural agents like rainfall, wind and other extreme climatic conditions,which are affecting rock art in natural caves country, human vandalism is destroying this heritage,� said Yashodhar Mathpal, archaeologist and director of Folk Art Museum at Bhimtal, Uttaranchal. Paintings and engravings on rocks showing hunting scenes, tool making and primitive agriculture — believed to be creations of stone age and new stone age men — exist in 677 sites across the country.
While no rock painting has yet been discovered in West Bengal, experts believe at least one such stone age cave existed in Ghatsila. “In most caves one sees names scribbled all over the paintings, thus defacing them for good. While these have been done by vandals, defacing has also been done by scholars, who in the name of collecting samples from these paintings, damage them in the process,� Mathpal said.
His view was corroborated by Rock Art Society of India vice-president Somnath Chakraborty, who alleged that samples were scraped out of rock paintings for dating tests.
“In the process the paintings fade out. Most of these scholars do not have the basic training to collect samples,� Chakraborty said. Mathpal cites the specific examples the Bhimbetka caves in Madhya Pradesh, where paintings have been defaced ‘numbering’ the paintings. “Many caves also face threats from contractors who take the hills on lease for quarrying. Many caves have been destroyed after blasting. Caves in Chambal no longer exist as a dam was built and they got submerged,�he said. A special volume, Rock Art Studies in India, written by Chakraborty, was released on Monday.