How much of ‘Pink City’ Jaipur—declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2019—will survive to celebrate its 300th anniversary in 2027? The answer, increasingly, looks bleak.

With little meaningful conservation in the past 25 years and almost nothing to show for in the last six, the city’s architectural soul is being chipped away—sometimes by neglect, sometimes by official bulldozers. As unsafe heritage buildings face the wrecking ball, the walled city—once the pride of urban planning—is turning into a graveyard of ruined havelis.

Last month, two separate building collapses in the walled city killed three people. These deaths triggered a belated official response: identify and demolish unsafe structures. But in a city built on centuries-old craftsmanship, the demolition list reads like an

See Full Page