Thaindian News

New Delhi, Oct 1 (IANS) Australian professionals will join hands with Indian experts at a workshop in Kerala to devise ways to protect heritage sites from natural and man-made disasters.
The Australian heritage workshop Oct 10 will help the Kochi-based Centre for Heritage Studies in developing management plans to minimise such damages.

“This is an example of the close collaboration on an area of importance for both Australia and India. AusHeritage, the country’s international network for heritage services, has worked with Indian institutions on several projects, including workshops and training sessions in recent years,” Peter Varghese, Australia’s new high commissioner, said here Thursday.

Vinod Daniel, chair of AusHeritage who will head the team, has worked on several projects in India over the past few years.

“Australian and Indian heritage practitioners have been working very closely over the last decade and learning from each other in preserving our valuable past for future generations,” said Daniel.

AusHeritage has also provided support for developing a new exhibition gallery at the Chhatrapati Shivaji Museum in Mumbai in addition to working closely with several private and government Indian cultural heritage organisations.

Last year it held workshops for museums in the northeast in collaboration with the Archaeological Survey of India.

It has a memorandum of understanding on cultural heritage collaboration with the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH).

Some of the heritage sites in Kerala are prone to damage from insects due to the state’s tropical climate.

The workshop is supported by the Australia-India Council (AIC), which has also funded previous initiatives in this area. The AIC supports collaborative initiatives in a wide range of areas of mutual concern, including in heritage conservation.