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Madras that is Chennai is the first city of modern India. It is the city where virtually every institution of the India of today – be it municipal governance, jurisprudence, educational systems, engineering, medicine, record-keeping, you name it – had its beginnings. It is a city to be proud of for what it has contributed to modern India.

Many of the buildings where these contributions were made still survive. Others have vanished, but those that stand are commemorations of that contribution and need to be protected and preserved. While the march of time cannot be wished away, what is of concern is that new development in the city is taking place without any consideration for preserving the past or the environment.

A recent example of this is the construction of the new Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly and Secretariat which involved the felling of century-old trees and at least four heritage structures, including Government House where more than 200 years of Madras history was written. What in any other country would be seeking World Heritage Site status, Fort St. George, which is nominally under the protection of the Archaeology Survey of India, but has multiple owners, is not immune to unplanned construction and consequent demolition of heritage buildings. Government organisations such as Metro Rail are merrily contemplating the demolition of a few heritage structures in the name of overall development, overlooking the fact that the needs of modern-day life can go hand-in-hand with heritage conservation. Even as we write this, the fate of two historic buildings, Bharat Insurance Building and Gokhale Hall, is in the hands of the Courts, the owners having decided to challenge earlier judgements stopping demolition.

The city, the cardle of the unique Indo-Saracenic architectural style and, later, a significant representative of the Art Deco style, teamed with enough and more examples of native styles as well, is fast losing its built heritage. Grand public edifices and houses built with indigenous technologies such as Madras terrace roofs, Madras plaster, red-oxide flooring and wooden staircases are a rarity, most of them having made way to faceless highrise, an inevitable transformation, given the population and the pressure on housing. What were once bungalows housing a few have made way for multi-storeyed homes with hundreds of residents.

This is why conservationists have long been seeking the enactment of a Heritage Act to protect the surviving monuments and edifices in the city, which do not come under the purview of the Archaeological Survey of India or the Tamil Nadu Department of Archaeology. For, in the absence of a heritage law, everything depends only on the sympathy of those sitting in judgement.

The wrecking of Moore Market, Spencer’s and Bentinck’s Building is still being talked about as though they happened yesterday. Had there been legislation to protect these buildings, such mindless wrecking would not have occurred.

And yet the situation is not as hopeless as it looks. In a judgement a couple of years ago, the High Court of Madras ordered the listing of 400 and odd heritage buildings in the city and directed the Government to ensure their protection. It also ordered the Government to form a Heritage Conservation Committee to look into the conservation of these structures.

But Government has also ensured that the Committee is largely populated with bureaucrats and others connected with Government. As a consequence, very little proactive action has been forthcoming. So it once again has to be back to the people. A public signature campaign seeking heritage protection seems to be the only way to get Government to pass a Heritage Act and save the city’s heritage. Your participation is important in this. Even if you don’t care for the monuments but feel that the Marina Beach or the Park where you go for your morning walk is important and needs to be passed on to the next generation, PLEASE SIGN THE APPEAL. For elevated roads are already being planned on the beach and parks are being looked at for Metro Rail stations.