GI to Warlis Paintings

The Registrar of Geographical Indications at Intellectual Property Office at Chennai has granted the status of proprietor of the Geographical Indications(GI) for  the world famous Warli paintings from Maharashtra.

“Javya Soma Mhase is the first artiste from Warli Tribal who has been appreciated by Government by conferring upon him Padma Shri in 2011 in recognition of his contribution to Warli art,”said, Ramesh Raghatwan, officer of Adivasi Yuva Seva Sangh.

Application filed by Adivasi Yuva Seva Sangh, represented by Ayush and A team of 9-members including Sachin Satvi, artiste Sanjay Parhad, Sandip Bhior, Tribal Research and Training Institute (TRTI) officers Bhikhabhai Patel from Gujarath and Ramesh Raghatwan from Pune, researchers Sampat Thankar and Madhukar Vadu and Social worker Sampat Bhasara was the consultative group for the process of acquiring protection for Warli Paintings in the form of GI.

Sources say that, not only paintings but the GI has provided propriety of Warli paintings with respect of Greeting cards, books, stationery and similar items falling in class-16, in respect of wooden items, decorative items, hangings, furniture falling in class 20 and even in respect of cloths and apparels, canvass, banner, curtain, covers and similar textiles falling in class 25.

Photo Credit: Kaushik Narasimhan /www.flickr.com / CC BY-SA 2.0