Mangaluru: The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) has taken up the restoration of old paintings at St. Aloysius Chapel in the city since a month, according to its chairman Major Gen. L.V. Gupta (retd).

Addressing a gathering after inaugurating the Mangaluru chapter of the INTACH here on Thursday, he said: “We are glad that the church has invested in this work. Please do visit the chapel and see the laboratory set up for restoration work.”

Stressing the need to protect and conserve heritage monuments and structures, he said that no country can be great without its heritage.

Mr. Gupta said that largely people are ignorant of India’s diverse history and heritage.

“Only 7,500 monuments have so far been declared as protected monuments. As per an estimate by INTACH, there are five million heritage sites in the country. Many of these monuments and structures are unprotected. They were being destroyed for lack of awareness of heritage value of these monuments,” he said.

He said the INTACH was working on listing and documentation of heritage structures and monuments and asking the government and people to protect them.

Subash Basu, convener of INTACH Mangaluru chapter, said that the chapter will document old Guttu houses and also visit houses of fishermen and artisans to document the way they build their houses.

They will work to revive some traditional methods of building houses that includes use of mud, timber and lime for construction.