Parsis seek heritage tag for agiaries ….Nauzer Bharucha I TNN
Mumbai: Guardian minister for Mumbai Jayant Patil on Thursday asked civic chief Jairaj Phatak to quickly take a decision on publishing a list of Zoroastrian agiaries or fire temples which could be given the status of heritage structures.
Currently, only 13 of the 47 fire temples are listed as grade 3 heritage sitesa rating that still makes these ancient, mostly bungalow-like buildings, vulnerable to being pulled down and redeveloped by builders eyeing such properties.
Only four fire temples are listed in the higher grade 2, which gives them complete protection from any kind of major changes in their facade. On Thursday, members of the World Association of Parsi Irani Zarathustris (Wapiz) along with political activist Dr Kuresh Zorabi and conservation architect Pankaj Joshi met Patil in Mantralaya and apprised him about the inordinate delay in giving protection to these religious places. Most of them were consecrated in the 19th century.
Joshi said that about three years ago, the BMC, instead of publishing the list cleared by the heritage committee, passed the buck to the state urban development department (UDD). However, since 2005, the UDD just sat on the list. Last month, the UDD passed it back to the BMC.
If the BMC does not do anything, you can get back to me, Patil assured the delegation, which is expected to meet the municipal commissioner on Friday.
Wapiz co-founder Khojeste Mistree said that the fire temple properties had become lucrative with some temple trustees conniving with builders to take advantage of the unutilised floor space index (FSI) for construction purposes.
Joshi observed that the state government can suo moto publish the list if the BMC fails to do so. It becomes that much easier once the list is announced. After that the whole process of inviting objections and suggestions can commence. The entire Parsi community will have to be then galvanised to support the heritage listing, although some trustees could oppose it, he said.
Between June 21 and December 2002, Joshi and his team mapped each and every fire temple in Mumbai, evaluated them on the basis of value classification and photographed them.
In a recent case, the charity commissioner turned down an application from a trustee of Tardeos Kappawala fire temple to redevelop a structure inside the temple complex. The fire in this agiary was consecrated way back in 1857, but the imposing building was constructed only in 1941 when the fire was shifted from Fort to Tardeo.
A few years ago, the Wadia agiary at Lalbaug was at the centre of a major controversy when the trustees allowed a builder to construct a 22-storey residential tower a few feet from the entrance of the mid-19th century fire temple building. The builder was dragged to court by some community activists. However, the development was allowed to come up by the supreme court.
Four years ago, the community protested when it found out about plans to demolish a 200-year-old, two-storeyed residential building for priests inside the Dadiseth fire temple in Girgaum, which came up in 1783. The plan was dropped following the protests.
At Tardeo, a portion of the Batliwala fire temple is again sought to be surrendered for road widening. In the early 1990s, local residents had successfully prevented the trustees from handing over a part of the property.
TIMELESS MONUMENTS: BMC has been asked to expedite the process of giving heritage status to fire temples