Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Jan 16: Munish Pandit, a practicing Conservation Consultant hailing from Jammu, has become the first Indian national to be elected President of the prestigious Bureau (Executive Body) of the International Committee on Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICICH), the scientific committee constituted by ICOMOS and an advisory body on Cultural Heritage to UNESCO.
The committee comprises around 70 international experts in fields related to cultural heritage from across the globe, and one of its key functions is to support and advise ICOMOS on world heritage matters and international collaborations in the field of heritage.
This is the first time that an Indian national has been selected for the post of president of this international scientific committee of ICOMOS.
A son of the soil, with his ancestry from a village Krimchi in Udhampur District, Munish Pandit is a practicing conservation architect in Delhi and is heading Sanrakshan Heritage Consultants Pvt Ltd, a firm dedicatedly providing its services in the field of architectural conservation and management of built heritage. He is also a consultant for conservation of Mubarak Mandi Palace Complex in Jammu and formulated the Master Plan for Conservation and Adaptive Reuse of Mubarak Mandi, which stands approved for implementation, by the Mubarak Mandi Jammu Heritage Society in March 2018.
An alumnus of the School of Planning and Architecture, New Delhi, from where he completed his Masters Degree in Architecture with specialization in Architectural Conservation in 1998, Pandit undertook advance course in conservation from University of Venice in year 1999 and initiated his career in Heritage Conservation by working with UNDP. For the past 22 years, he is actively working towards conservation of built heritage nationally and internationally and has contributed to over 60 heritage sites.
As a consultant to UNESCO, he provided his services in developing World Heritage Nomination for Coral Stone Mosques of Maldives. He was Principal Consultant to AGTF, Government of Mauritius for preparation of World Heritage Nomination, Management Plan for Aapravasi Ghat.
Recipient of UNESCO Asia-Pacific Award for Cultural Heritage Conservation twice, Pandit is also active with the international community of professionals and in the academic field, and has presented several technical papers which have appeared in publications of international repute.
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