Govardhan Hill in Braj, India
Conservation Planning & Design
Introduction
The Govardhan Hill in Braj, India, a low ridge about 7 miles long, has been venerated since ancient times and receives close to 10 million pilgrims annually who visit its temples and shrines and circumambulate it for doing parikrama. Legendary association with Krishna who lifted the Hill to project the people of Braj from incessant rains sent by Indra has imbued its landscape with great religious significance. Place myths, folk beliefs, and ritual practices constitute its cultural heritage sustained through oral traditions, visual imagery and place experiences created by sensory immersion in worship rituals and participation in re-enactment of myths.
New development in Govardhan threatens to disrupt the forest cover, bring about loss of farmland, and overly commercialize its sacred ambience. While some kunds (water bodies) have dried up, others have become polluted. The large number of pilgrims and lack of adequate infrastructure have stressed the landscape. Graduate students led by Professor Amita Sinha from the Department of Landscape Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign propose conservation of the sacred landscape and development of eco-cultural tourism through planning and design interventions.
