pune some of the oldest and important historical buildings in the pune cantonment area are losing their significance among tourists and locals as authorities are not taking any action to conserve these structures the lessees of these structures are also not known any morewhile there are architects and conservationists who are willing to maintain and conserve these structures they have no support of authorities who can lend helpbeing the melting pot of so many cultures and religions and being one of the oldest cantonments in india the area is home to structures steeped in history some buildings have received attention and are fairly wellmaintained like the parsi agiary on bootee street but little has been done to preserve other structures which are at various stages of decay a few buildings are in utter ruins with only a pillar or the base of the original structure remainingthe situation can improve if such buildings are accorded heritage or gradei structures by the state or union government the buildings could have then received more funding and more could be done to educate the masses about these structures unfortunately most of the structures at the pune cantonment are gradeii and gradeiii structures which is why they do not receive the attention they require harsh kabra who has written extensively about the oldest structures in the city saidarchitects say that the cantonment and army authorities are responsible for these old structures not receiving a heritage status as they are not willing to prioritise the buildings the cantonment board or the southern command does not have the will to preserve these structures some of which have a lot of history associated with them architects and conservationists are always ready to help preserve our heritage but they do not know how to approach the maintenance of these structures it is also difficult to wade through the bureaucracy of the army authorities i was told point blank by a senior army official that preserving these buildings was not a priority kiran kalamdani a citybased architect and conservationist saidin 2011 kalamdani along with the city chapter of indian national trust for art and cultural heritage intach was asked by the pune cantonment board pcb to prepare an outline for the revival of the shivaji market in camp one of the most welllaid out markets in the city which was crumbling under its 130year history we prepared the plan and handed it over but the pcb refused to appoint us and considered none of our recommendations kalamdani saidmeanwhile churches in the cantonment some of the oldest in the country have a mixed fate as some were reconstructed with the help of generous donors and architects like charles correa and others remained damaged due to previous fires and mishaps the authorities of a few churches still struggle to attract resources for renovationsarchives are crucial while preserving such structures as they often provide invaluable information about the dimensions of the buildings materials used or the original owners the pcb owns a few