A tear for heritage

There is a site in Pakistan – little known to most in the country – where, according to Hindu folklore, Lord Shiva dropped a tear. According to the tale, the tear produced a lake so deep that it was thought to reach the very bottom of the Earth. A complex of temples developed around this site near Kalar Kahar over 1,500 years – with the beautiful blue of the lake becoming the unmistakable image associated with the site. This temple complex became known as the Katas Raj temples and was one of the cultural landmarks that the new state of Pakistan inherited – a symbol of the religious plurality and cultural richness of the Indus River Basin. But the complex was also a Hindu site of worship and – for a tiny and vocal minority – this cultural heritage had no part to play in Pakistan. Today, Shiva’s tear has been dry for over a year, drained not by extremists but by the development of industry near the site. Three cement factories have cropped up in the vicinity of the Katas Raj temples, draining the ground water levels over decades.

There have been attempts to fix what ‘development’ did to the area over the last half a decade but none of them have worked. In its latest hearing after taking suo motu notice of the drying up of the lake at the Katas Raj temple, Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Saquib Nisar asked the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB) to explain why statues of Hindu deities have gone missing from the ancient temple. The EPTB chose to cite a possible threat by extremists as the rationale behind the decision, while also saying that the former chairman of the board has escaped from the country and that nothing is now known about the missing statues. That this could be the state of the second most sacred site for Hindus is a disturbing sign. The pillaging of heritage sites cannot be allowed to happen, and the annoyance of the court under these circumstances is not difficult to understand. The CJP has expressed equal anger over the failure of the counsel of the major cement factories in the locality to appear in court. One cement company has admitted to using at least 80,000 gallons of water per day. It is unclear who gave the authority to the companies to use ground water. It is unfortunate that no attempt was made to resolve it and improve the situation of the vanishing lake before the SC took up the issue on its own accord. If the companies’ follow the SC orders and fill the Katas Raj pond with water, it will sparkle again in all its historical glory. But this tear will now reflect the degradation that the misuse of natural resources has done to the Potohar region.