The Centre has identified and documented distinctive features of more than one lakh villages across the country under the ‘Mera Gaon Meri Dharohar‘ (My Village My Heritage) programme of the National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM).
- In this cultural asset mapping, villages have been broadly divided into seven-eight categories based on whether they are important ecologically, developmentally and scholastically, if they produce a famous textile or product, and if they are connected to some historical or mythological events.
- Examples of ecological category: Bishnoi village near Jodhpur in Rajasthan, which is a case study for living in harmony with nature, and Uttarakhand’s Raini village, which is famous for the Chipko movement.
- Developmental importance: Modhera in Gujarat, which is the first solar-powered village in India.
- Historical category villages: Kandel in Madhya Pradesh, the site of the famous ‘Jal Satyagraha’, and the villages of Hanol in Uttarakhand and Vidurashwathar of Karnataka, which are linked to the Mahabharata. Suketi in Himachal Pradesh (Asia’s oldest fossil park), and Pandrethan in Kashmir (the village of Shaivite mystic Lal Ded).
About National Mission for Cultural Mapping (NMCM)
- The NMCM aims to develop a comprehensive database of art forms, artists and other resources across the country.
- Though launched by the Culture Ministry in 2017, the programme got off to a slow start and was handed over to the Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) in 2021.
(Source: The Hindu)
