Hyderabad: Year-long solar observation exercise at ancient menhirs site begins

Hyderabad: As part of its efforts to get UNESCO World Heritage Site tag for the ancient menhirs site in Mudumal of Krishna mandal in Narayanpet district, the Jai Makthal Trust in association with the Planetary Society of India and Telangana Information Technology Association (TITA) kick-started a year-long observation at ancient menhirs site from March 21. The year-long event by Jai Makthal Trust has been named as 'Orbit 2022.'

The observation exercise began at 5am on occasion the celestial event Vernal Equinox. The vernal equinox comes in the year when the Sun is exactly above the Equator and day and night are of equal length. In the Northern Hemisphere, the vernal equinox falls around March 20 or 21, as the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving towards North. Observations will also be made on Summer Solstice falling on June 21 which has the shortest night and Winter Solstice falling on December 21 which has the longest night of the year.

The Jai Makthal Trust led by its President Sundeep Kumar Makthala is spreading the cause of conserving the ancient site and for promoting it as a tourism site and subsequently getting UNESCO WHS tag for the site. Makthala has also represented the Union Minister for Tourism Kishan Reddy and State Tourism Minister G Srinivas Goud to take up measures to protect the ancient heritage site. Sundeep Makthala also met Prof Panduranga Rao one of the founding members of the Kakatiya Heritage Trust and discussed the process and efforts involved in getting the UNESCO tag to the Kakatiya-era temple so that a similar process can be followed in getting UNESCO recognition to the ancient heritage site in Mudumal.

Sundeep said Orbit 2022 is a crucial part of the documentation being prepared to secure the UNESCO WHS tag for the menhirs site. As part of the year-long exercise, observations will be made on four celestial events. Under Orbit 2022, experts would experience what ancient people witnessed from their menhirs structures about 3,500 years ago in Mudimal.