Apart from the colossal loss of life, over 200 historical monuments have also been badly damaged in the Nepal earthquake, including some world heritage structures in the capital, forcing the country to approach UNESCO to assess the overall destruction to the buildings.
While designs for most of these structures are available with the Department of Archaeology, its chief Bhesh Narayan Dahal has said that it will take at least 5-7 years to salvage and restore the damaged structures.
Declared as a world heritage site in 1979 by the UNESCO, the Kathmandu valley as a whole has seven such areas - the Hanuman Doka, which is known as the palace area, Patan Darbar, Bhaktapur darbar square, Swayambhoonath, Boudhanath, Changunarayan and Pashupatinath temples.
Of these, only Pashupatinath temple has escaped major damage. Most of the structures have suffered major ruin. These structures have a unique Pagoda style of architecture, typical of Nepal.
Patan district in the valley has suffered maximum damage with 11 monuments affected by the earthquake, followed by Bhaktapur. Gorkha district has some 7 major sites destroyed in the earthquake.
However, many structures have escaped the wrath of the 7.9 magnitude earthquake. For instance, the Kumari temple, the Nyatapola and Taleju temples in the valley have suffered no major damage.
"There are some 59 monuments which are totally collapsed and 191 are partially damaged. We have asked the UNESCO to assess the loss of these structures," said Dahal, Director General of the Department of Archaeology of Nepal.
"We have also approached all the government engineering departments from different ministries to help us to restore the monuments. We have designs of most of these structures, so it would not be a problem to restore them. It will take at least 5-7 years to restore these monuments," he added.
The department is also expecting help from other governments like India and Qatar.
However, there are some structures of which there are no records of the designs. Also many old Buddhist monasteries in the interior regions have also been damaged.
"We don't have designs of all the structures. Many structures are privately owned or foreign-funded, so they don't come under our jurisdiction," Dahal said.
