India’s Delhi Wall Eroded by People, Not Time

China has its Great Wall and India has its walled capital city. The comparison ends there.

While China is revamping its monument, a burgeoning population in India’s capital has been chipping stone by stone at the wall that has bounded old parts of Delhi since the 17th century. Shantytowns dwarf what remains of the wall at many places in the Indian capital.

“History at his doorstep means very little to the average person overwhelmed by the concerns of housing, employment, food and water,” said Pawan Verma, an expert on historical architecture.

People cart off stone for their own use or to sell for construction projects.

D.V. Sharma, a deputy director of the Archeological Survey of India, the federal body responsible for thousands of monuments across the country, blames the damage on years of neglect by the local government.

“Only 10% to 20% of the wall remains. That will also go,” he predicted.

While attention is paid to well-known monuments like the Taj Mahal, thousands of temples, mosques, tombs, mansions and ancient shrines have been demolished across India. As one of the poorest countries, it lacks the money to protect one of the world’s richest architectural heritages.

New Delhi’s Red Fort, an imposing citadel of red stone, receives a cursory sprucing up once a year, when it is the backdrop for nationally televised independence day celebrations.

What the cameras don’t show, but what about 20,000 daily visitors see, is litter covering the ground, graffiti defacing marble pillars, unkempt gardens and crumbling plaster.

“It’s badly maintained. I don’t know how much damage the British did [through neglect during colonial rule] and how much it has deteriorated since the British left,” said Sean O’Malley, a Canadian visitor touring the citadel.

The Red Fort, which was built by the Moghul ruler Shah Jahan in the 17th century, is among 5,000 monuments overseen by the Archeological Survey of India. The department’s yearly budget of $23.6 million just isn’t enough, said its director-general, Ajai Shankar.

“We plan to have one guard for each protected monument. At present, one guard is looking after two monuments,” Shankar said.

While Shankar struggles to protect his 5,000 sites, five times that number fall outside federal oversight.

“The situation is pathetic in states where local governments take no interest in conserving the heritage,” said O.P. Jain, who heads the New Delhi chapter of the private Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.

Many such private groups have started repairing monuments on their own, especially in cities and at well known tourist spots.

A private group bought a dilapidated fort near New Delhi from a former prince who couldn’t maintain it. After eight years’ restoration, the fort was converted to a 30-bed hotel.

“The old mansions could also be used as art galleries and bookshops,” said Verma, who has written a book on neglected “havelis,” or mansions.

The government set up a National Culture Fund last year to promote such private initiatives. The response so far has been lukewarm, but it is a beginning.

The London-based Aga Khan Trust has promised $200,000, and Oberoi, an Indian hotel chain, pledged $50,000 for improvements at the 16th century Humayun’s tomb, an early example of the Moghul style--the greatest example of which is the Taj Mahal.