About
To stimulate and spearhead heritage awareness and conservation across India's built, natural and intangible heritage.
The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) is India's largest membership organisation dedicated to heritage conservation, founded in 1984. Through more than 190 chapters and specialist divisions - architectural, natural, material (art conservation), and intangible heritage, plus heritage listing, education and training - it conserves and documents thousands of sites and objects, advocates for heritage protection, and serves as the principal civil-society partner to government on conservation.
From its founding in 1984, INTACH built a nationwide movement for heritage conservation where the state's reach was limited. It established specialist divisions - an Architectural Heritage Division, INTACH Conservation Institutes for art and artefacts, Natural and Intangible Heritage cells, the Heritage Education and Communication Service, and a Listing Cell that documents heritage buildings (now via a public survey app) - and an INTACH Heritage Academy for training.
Over four decades it has documented and intervened at thousands of sites, led post-disaster heritage recovery (such as after the 2013 Uttarakhand floods), and earned UN ECOSOC special consultative status in 2007. With chapters in 190-plus Indian cities and abroad, it is recognised as one of the world's largest heritage organisations.
Founding & Leadership
INTACH was founded on 27 January 1984 in New Delhi as a membership organisation to spearhead heritage awareness and conservation in India. Its driving force was cultural administrator Pupul Jayakar, with Rajiv Gandhi as its first Chairman and a founding council that included Kapila Vatsyayan and other leading cultural figures. It was conceived around the conviction - echoing the Constitution's directive on every citizen's duty to protect heritage - that living in harmony with heritage enhances quality of life.
A membership society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, governed by a Chairman and Governing Council, operating through a national network of chapters and specialist divisions.
Leadership & Trustees
Initiatives & Portfolio
Conservation and restoration of built heritage across India.
Specialist laboratories for the conservation of art, artefacts and material heritage.
Systematic listing and documentation of heritage buildings nationwide, including a public heritage-survey mobile app.
Heritage awareness and education programmes for schools and the public.
Training and capacity-building for conservation professionals.
Intangible-heritage documentation, natural-heritage work, a Crafts & Community Cell, and post-disaster heritage relief (e.g. 2013 Uttarakhand floods).
Impact & Metrics
Partnerships & Network
Partner institutions
Government partners
Funders & patrons
Credentials & Compliance
CSR-eligible · Schedule VII(v) - national heritage
A long-established registered society with UN consultative status and a formal national structure. Specific 80G/12A/FCRA particulars are [Data Not Publicly Available]. Its scale and chapter network are a delivery strength; the corresponding governance challenge is consistency of quality and accountability across 190-plus semi-autonomous chapters.
A natural CSR partner for heritage spending under Schedule VII(v), with pan-India delivery capacity through its chapter network.
Recognition
India's largest heritage-conservation membership body; UN ECOSOC special consultative status (2007).
[Atlas Assessment] INTACH is the backbone of India's heritage-conservation movement. For four decades it has been the principal civil-society force documenting, advocating for and conserving heritage across a country where the state's capacity is stretched thin - and across categories, from monuments to crafts to natural and intangible heritage, that fall outside the ASI's remit. Its listing work and training have built much of the country's baseline conservation infrastructure.
INTACH scores highest on reach - no other heritage body comes close to its 190-plus-chapter national footprint - and high on longevity and ecosystem influence. As a benchmark it represents the national baseline: broad, civic and pervasive, where AKTC represents the deep, technical pinnacle. The honest caveat is the flip side of scale: quality and governance can vary considerably across a large, decentralised, volunteer-heavy chapter network, so a funder should assess the specific chapter or project rather than the brand alone.