A Buddhist stupa and major tourist attraction at Chandavaram Village in Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh, is being restored by the state government. The stupa is the largest in the state, and is said to rival the Sanchi stupa in grandeur (The Hindu).
Conservation work on Buddhist stupa at Chandavaram Village, Prakasam District, Andhra Pradesh. From Kommuri Srinivas
With a budget of Indian rupees 1 crore (approx. US$150,000), the state aims to conserve this and similar sites in order to promote the influx of tourists. Tourism Assistant Director M. Nagabhushanam explained that “Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu is keen on improving the tourist infrastructure at Chandavaram and promote religious tourism by organising package tours to, among other places, Amaravati, Chandavaram and Nagarjunakonda.”
The Buddhist ruins include a three-winged vihara as well as the stupa, which stands at 30 ft high and has a circumference of 120 ft. The entrance features a marble sculpture of the Buddha seated in meditation, while events related to the Buddha’s life and teachings are depicted on the sides.
State Archaeology and Museums Director G .V. Ramakrishna told reporters that they are now in the process of “giving finishing touches to the conservation work on the Second Century BC Buddhist stupa with utmost care” (The Hindu).
Among other recent efforts to restore and promote ancient Buddhist sites, in December last year the government of Bihar State initiated an awareness program titled “walking tourism” to publicize various Buddhist sites in the region. The sites are already under the protection of the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI). “All the sites associated with Lord Buddha pilgrimage tour would be developed to attract Buddhist pilgrims. It would be major attraction for all the Buddhists across the world,” commented Jawaid Iqbal Ansari, tourism minister for Bihar. The central government also planned to promote Buddhist destinations in Uttar Pradesh. Most of the sites were expected to “see some makeover” (easydestination.net).
Also in December last year, the government applied for Japanese funding and technical support to develop 19 Buddhist sites in Krishna District, Andhra Pradesh, into a “Buddhist Circuit.” The sites, which include two from the 2nd and 3rd centuries, were already under conservation by the ASI (The Hindu).
On 27 March this year, The Hindu further reported that the Department of Archaeology and Museums of the Telangana state government had built a fence around an ancient Buddhist site containing two monuments on Karukonda hillock in Khammam District. The site, which is listed as a protected monument, had been neglected until recently, and the fence is only the first stage in a project to restore it. Debris and weed have also been removed.
It has been proposed to link the site with a second Buddhist site in the district, at Nelakondapalli, to make a tourist circuit.
Despite these recent efforts, a 2013 article written for The Buddhist Forum suggests that most of the 800–900 Buddhist sites across India remain neglected. The article states that from 1990 to 2011, the total financial spending of the archaeological departments of 29 states on the restoration and promotion of 53 Buddhist sites came to just Rs. 17,63,30,549 (approx. US$2,764,722).