Bidar in the World Monument Watch.

Bidar has been included in the World Monument Watch 2014, declared by the World Monument Fund, an organisation based in New York. WMF is the leading independent organisation devoted to saving world’s treasured places. For nearly 50 years, working in 100 countries, its experts have applied proven and effective techniques to the preservation of important architectural and cultural heritage sites around the globe. Bidar is the first site in from Karnataka to be recognised by the WMF. This nomination ensures increased global attention on the heritage of the city and will motivate many agencies to come forward for preservation of the Heritage sites. Though nomination does not guarantee any funding from the WMF, they may fund some projects for the preservation of the heritage of the city. The 2014 list includes 67 sites from 41 countries. They received nominations for 741 monuments from 166 countries. Bidar is one of the three sites included from India. This nomination will lead to added international attention being bestowed upon Bidar. The nomination will bring with it a lot of expertise in planning for the conservation and preservation activities and exploiting the tourism potential of the City. This will enhance the capacity for documentation at the local level. To commemorate this, the district administration has planned to organize an International Seminar on the theme The Glory of Bidar in the second week of January 2014. The seminar is mainly intended to document various aspects of the heritage of Bidar. Further, the administration has also identified three themes for organizing heritage walks in the city. The route is formed in such a way that the group can cover the whole length in around two hours with visiting various locations. The district administration extends its heartfelt gratitude to the World Monument Fund for recognizing the City. We also appreciate the services rendered by Mr. Raykar, Executive Director, Indian Heritage Cities Network and Mr. Govindan Kutty who have motivated the district administration to fill the nomination for the WMF. They have extensively toured the city and helped us in documenting various aspects of heritage especially the Naubad Karez system and Bag-e-Hamam.